THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


Edinburgh'.  Printed  by  Thomas  and  Archibald  Constabl* 

FOR 

DAVID  DOUGLAS. 

LONDON         .......      HAMILTON,  ADAMS,  AND  CO. 

CAMBRIDGE MACMILLAN  AND  BOWES. 

GLASGOW JAMES  MACLEHOSE  AND  SONS. 


Letters  of  thomas  erskine 
of  linlathen 


EDITED  BY 

WILLIAM    HANNA,    D.D.,   LL.D. 

AUTHOR  OF  '  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS,'  ETC. 

FOURTH  EDITION 


EDINBURGH 

DAVID    DOUGLAS 

1884 


\  All  ripJtts  rfS£>~ued.  \ 


3>R 
112.5" 


PREFACE. 

Ihe  late  Bishop  Ewing,  who  knew  Mr.  Erskine  inti- 
mately, has  said,  "  Should  any  one  attempt  to  write 
the  life  of  Mr.  Erskine,  the  difficulty  must  ever  present 
itself  to  him  that  what  he  has  to  depict  is  spirit  and 
not  matter,  that  he  has  to  convey  light,  to  represent 
sound — an  almost  insuperable  difficulty.  Perhaps  it 
can  only  in  a  measure  be  overcome  by  giving  his  very 
words,  his  thoughts,  as  they  came  fresh  from  his  heart, 
in  letters,  memoranda,  and  such  like  materials."1  This 
is  what  the  Editor  of  this  volume  has  attempted ; 
confining  himself  to  the  task  of  arranging  Mr.  ErsMne's 
letters  in  such  order,  giving  such  information,  when 
necessary,  as  to  the  persons  addressed,  and  interlacing 
them  occasionally  with  such  illustrative  narrative,  that 
by  its  setting  the  mirror  may  be  made  to  reflect,  as 
clearly  and  fully  as  possible,  the  pure  bright '  image  of 
one  who  moved  so  lovingly  and  attractively  among  his 
1  Present  Day  Papers,  Third  Series,  p.  1 1 

1 


viii  PREFACE. 

fellow-men,  who  walked  so  closely  and  constantly  with 
God. 

The  utmost  interest  attaches  to  the  origin,  progress, 
and  development  of  Mr.  Erskine's  religious  beliefs.  To 
such  as  desire  to  trace  their  history  I  have  either  care- 
fully presented  or  indicated  the  materials  out  of  which 
such  a  history,  to  be  faithful,  must  be  drawn.  But  I 
have  not  attempted  what  would  have  involved  an 
analysis  of  Mr.  Erskine's  mental,  moral,  and  spiritual 
idiosyncrasies,  as  well  as  a  consideration  of  those  laws 
which  the  evolution  of  his  later  from  his  earlier  ideas 
obeyed.  Nor  have  I  entered  on  the  still  more  in- 
teresting and  important  topic  of  defining  the  place  he 
held  in,  and  estimating  the  influence  he  exerted  over, 
the  religious  thought  and  life  of  his  age ;  confining 
myself  to  the  office  of  the  Editor,  and  waiving  that 
of  the  critic  or  the  historian. 

W.  HANNA. 

16  Magdala  Crescent, 

Edinburgh,  February  1878. 

Note. — By  omitting  some  of  the  Letters,  and  shortening 
the  connecting  narrative,  the  two  volumes  already  published 
are  now  made  one. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

CHAP.  I.— ANCESTRY  AND  EARLIER  YEARS,     ...  1 

II.— LETTERS  TO  DR.  CHALMERS,  AND  PUBLICA- 
TION OP  "REMARKS  ON  THE  INTERNAL 
EVIDENCE  FOR  THE  TRUTH  OF  REVEALED 
RELIGION," 17 

III.— LETTERS  FROM   THE  CONTINENT   DURING 

THE  YEARS  1822-24 29 

IV.—  LETTERS  AT  HOME    1825-26 51 

V.— LETTERS  FROM  THE  CONTINENT,  1826-27,       .        61 

VI.— CASE  OF  THE  REV.  J.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL  OF 

ROW— LETTERS  OF  1828,  1829,  1830,       .        .      100 

VII.— THE  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS— LETTERS  FROM  1830 

TILL  1835 129 

VIII.— LETTERS  FROM  1834  TILL  1837,   ....       168 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

CHAP.  IX.— DOCTRINAL  LETTERS, 184 

X.— LETTERS  OF  1838  AND  1839,      .         .        .        .196 

XL— LETTERS  FROM  1840  TILL  1844,       ...      244 

XII.— LETTERS  FROM  THE  CONTINENT,  1844-46,   .      274 

XIII.— LETTERS  FROM  1847  TILL  1852,      ...        283 

XIV.— LETTERS  FROM  1853  TILL  1856,        .        .        .301 

XV.— LETTERS  FROM  1856  TILL  1862,       ...      325 

XVI.— RECORDS  OF  A  VISIT  TO  LINLATHEN  IN 

THE  AUTUMN  OF  1865,  ....      348 

XVII.— LETTERS  OF  1865  AND  1866,      ....      368 

XVIII.— LETTERS  ON  SELECT  SUBJECTS,    .        .        .382 

XIX.— LETTERS    OF  SYMPATHY    AND    CONSOLA- 
TION,   440 

XX.— REMINISCENCES  BY  A.  P.   STANLEY,  D.D., 

DEAN  OF  WESTMINSTER,    ....      454 

XXL— DEATH  OF  HIS  TWO  SISTERS,         .        .         .463 

XXIL— LETTERS  OF  1867,  1868,  AND  1869,  ...      475 

XXIII. —THE  CLOSE,  499 

XXIV.— REMINISCENCES  BY  PRINCIPAL  SHAIRP,  509 


CONTENTS. 


APPENDIX. 

PAGE 

1.  Extracts  from  "  The  Unconditional  Freeness  of  the 

Gospel," 54S 

2.  Extracts  from  "  The  Brazen  Serpent,"        ....  547 

3.  Extracts  from  "The  Doctrine  of  Election,"  etc.,     .       .  553 

4.  Notice  of  Mr.  Alexander  J.  Scott, 567 

5.  Writings  of  Mr.  Erskinf, 573 

INDEX, 579 


LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


CHAPTER    I. 

Ancestry  and  Earlier  Years. 

The  great-grandfather  of  Thomas  Erskine  was  the  Hon- 
ourable Colonel  John  Erskine  of  Carnock,  great-great-grand- 
son of  the  distinguished  Earl  of  Mar,  the  wise  Regent  of 
Scotland,  and  the  faithful  counsellor  of  King  James  VI. 
Driven,  like  his  elder  brother,  the  third  Lord  Cardross 
into  exile  under  the  reign  of  the  last  of  the  Stuarts, 
Colonel  Erskine  repaired  to  The  Hague,  took  part  in  the 
expedition  of  the  Prince  of  Orange  into  England,  and 
largely  contributed  to  the  settlement  of  the  new  govern- 
ment in  Scotland.  One  thing  however  interfered  with 
the  public  recognition  of  his  services.  Imagining  that  he 
would  thereby  be  held  as  approving  of  the  constitution 
of  the  Church  of  England  and  the  manner  of  its  connection 
with  the  State,  be  could  not  be  persuaded  to  take  the 
oaths  of  allegiance  and  abjuration.  Surprised  at  not  find- 
ing Colonel  Erskine's  name  in  a  list  which  he  had  asked 
his  confidential  advisers  to  present  to  him  of  friends 
in  Scotland  entitled  to  recognition  and  reward,  King 
William  inquired,  and  was  told  the  reason  of  the  omission. 

A 


LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


"It  may  be   so,"   was  the    King's  reply,    "but   I  know 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Erskine  to  be  a  firmer  friend  to  the 
Government  than  many  of   those  who  have  taken  that 
oath."     Fifty  years'  faithful  discharge  of  all  the  duties  of 
a  good  and  loyal  subject  proved  that  the  King's  judgment 
was  correct.     In  the  last   Scottish  Parliament  he  repre- 
sented   the    town    of   Stirling;    in    1707   had  a  seat  in 
the    United    Parliament   of   Great   Britain ;    and,   at  the 
general    election    in    the  following   year,  was    chosen  as 
member  for  the  Stirling  district  of  burghs.     There  was, 
however,   another  assembly  in  which   he  found  a   more 
congenial    sphere    of    public    usefulness.      For    the    long 
period  of  upwards  of  forty  years  he  was  returned  annually 
by  the  Presbytery  of  Dunfermline,  within  whose  bounds 
his  estate  of  Carnock  lay,  as  one  of  their  representatives  to 
the  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland ;  and  it 
was  one  of  the  many  tokens  of  the  confidence  which  that 
Church  reposed  in  him,  that  when,  in  1735,  three  special 
Commissioners  were  despatched  to  London  to  urge  upon 
the  Crown  and  Government  the  rescinding  of  the  Act  of 
1712,  which  restored  the  rights  of  Patrons,  he  was  one  of 
the  three — the  single  layman — selected  to  take  part  in 
this  important  mission. 

Universally  respected  as  he  was,  the  Black  Colonel  (so 
called  from  his  complexion,  and  to  distinguish  him  from 
his  nephew,  the  White  Colonel)  had  his  own  peculiarities. 
During  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life1  he  was  afflicted 
with  asthma.  One  day,  when  he  was  suffering  from  an 
attack  which  put  a  fresh  edge  upon  a  temper  naturally 
somewhat  inclined  to  irritability,  fires  for  burning  kelp  had 
been  kindled  under  authority  of  the  magistrates  upon  the 
beach  of  the  Firth  of  Forth,  which  lay  immediately  below 

i  He  died  at  Edinburgh  on  the  13th  of  January  1743,  in  the  eighty- 
second  year  of  his  age. 


ANCESTRY  AND  EARLIER   YEARS. 


his  house  at  Culross.  Imagining  that  the  smoke  aggravated 
his  asthma,  the  Colonel  sent  down  peremptory  orders  that 
the  fires  should  be  put  out.  They  were  not  obeyed.  Un- 
able to  walk,  he  at  once  called  for  his  horse,  drew  his 
sword,  and  handed  it  to  his  grandson,  a  youth  of  fourteen, 
then  living  with  him.  Down  through  the  steep  street  of 
the  village  they  went,  determined  with  their  own  hands  to 
extinguish  the  fires.  The  magistrates  were  too  quick  and 
too  many  for  them.  Gathering  their  retainers,  they  sur- 
rounded the  Colonel  and  his  grandson,  and  took  them 
prisoners.  The  falseness  and  awkwardness  of  the  position 
revealed  themselves  to  him  in  a  moment.  Another  fire, 
that  of  his  own  quick  passion,  was  at  once  extinguished. 
"  This  is  all  nonsense,"  he  said  to  the  magistrates  ;  "  we 
are  all  in  the  wrong ;  come  along  to  the  inn,  and  let  us 
dine  together  and  forget  this  folly."  The  invitation  was 
as  promptly  accepted  as  it  had  been  given,  the  best  dinner 
the  innkeeper  could  produce  was  supplied,  and  the  evening 
spent  in  perfect  good-humour.  The  youth  who  upon  this 
occasion  filled  the  somewhat  ludicrous  position  of  sword- 
bearer,  marching  before  his  grandfather,  was  no  other  than 
Dr.  John  Erskine,  who  afterwards  became  the  eminent 
divine,  and  whose  father,  the  Colonel's  eldest  son,1  was 
then  practising  at  the  bar  in  Edinburgh. 

This  son  in  his  character  and  life  was  a  singular  contrast 
to  his  father.  Thoughtful,  retiring,  diffident,  taking  little 
interest  in  public  matters,  whether  of  Church  or  State, 
he  gave  himself  to  the  study  of  law,  and  was  called  to  the 
Scottish  bar  in  1719,  in  his  twenty -third  year.  In  1737 
he  was  appointed  Professor  of  Scottish  Law  in  the  Uni- 

1  Colonel  Erskine  was  four  times  married  :  first,  to  a  daughter  of  Mure  of 
Caldwell,  without  issue  ;  second,  to  a  daughter  of  Dundas  of  Kincavel,  by 
whom  he  had  four  sons  and  a  daughter  ;  third,  to  a  daughter  of  Stirling 
of  Keir,  without  issue ;  and  fourth,  to  a  daughter  of  Stuart  of  Dunearn, 
by  whom  he  had  one  son. 


LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


versity  of  Edinburgh ;  and  for  twenty-eight  years  he 
taught  with  pre-eminent  ability  and  success,  drawing 
around  him  a  larger  number  of  students  than  had  ever 
previously  attended  such  a  class.  In  1754  he  published 
his  Principles  of  the  Law  of  Scotland,  intended  chiefly 
as  a  text-book  for  the  use  of  his  students.  In  1765  he 
resigned  his  Professorship  and  retired  to  Cardross,  an 
estate  lying  near  the  Lake  of  Menteith.  He  purchased 
this  property  from  his  cousin,  the  lineal  representative  of 
his  ancestors,  the  Lords  Cardross,  and  from  which  they 
derived  the  title.  Here  for  the  last  three  years  of  his  life 
he  occupied  himself  in  perfecting  The  Institutes  of  the  Laiv 
of  Scotland,  a  work  which  for  a  hundred  years  has  kept  its 
place  of  eminence  and  authority  as  one  of  the  ablest  exposi- 
tions in  theory  and  practice  of  the  Law  of  Scotland,  and 
has  earned  for  its  author  the  well-merited  title  of  the 
"Blackstone  of  Scottish  Jurisprudence."1 

The  Professor's  only  child  by  his  first  wife, — a  daughter 
of  the  Hon.  James  Melville  of  Balgarvie,2  was  Dr.  John 
Erskine,  of  whose  life  and  writings  so  full  an  account  has 
been  given  by  Sir  Harry  Moncreiff.  For  fifty  years 
Dr.  Erskine  was  the  centre  of  a  large  religious  circle — 
having  among  his  correspondents  Bishops  Warburton  and 
Hurd  in  England,  Jonathan  Edwards  and  Dr.  Cotton  Mather 
in  America,  and  many  distinguished  divines  of  the  Conti- 
nent, in  whose  labours  and  their  results  he  took  so  lively  an 
interest,  that  in  his  sixtieth  year  he  acquired  the  Dutch  and 
German  languages,  then  little  known  in  Scotland.  More, 
perhaps,  than  any  other  individual,  he  contributed  to  what- 
ever progress  theological  literature  made  in  Scotland  during 
the  last  half  of  the  eighteenth  century.     But  it  was  chiefly 

1  John  Erskine  died  at  Cardross  on  the  1st  of  March  1768,  in  the 
seventy-third  year  of  his  age. 

-  Brother  of  the  second  Earl  of  Leven  and  third  of  Melville. 


ANCESTRY  AND  EARLIER  YEARS.  5 

as  a  devout  Christian,  a  devoted  pastor,  and  a  zealous 
ecclesiastic,  that  he  was  known.  In  the  latter  character 
he  acted  for  many  years  as  the  leader  of  the  popular  or 
Evangelical  party  in  the  Church  of  Scotland.  The  friendly 
and  affectionate  intercourse  which  he  through  life  main- 
tained with  the  leader  of  the  opposite  party,  Dr.  Robertson 
the  historian,  tells  what  the  spirit  was  in  which  that  leader- 
ship was  conducted.  For  twenty-three  years  they  were 
associated  as  colleagues  in  the  pastoral  charge  of  the  church 
and  parish  of  the  Grey  friars  in  Edinburgh.  They  were 
men  of  opposite  principles,  sentiments,  and  pursuits,  yet 
they  lived  in  unbroken  harmony.  Of  Dr.  Erskine's  sermon 
on  the  death  of  Dr.  Robertson,  Dugald  Stewart  has  said 
that  "it  would  be  difficult  to  say  whether  it  reflected 
greater  honour  on  the  character  of  the  writer  or  of  him 
whom  it  commemorates."  Sir  Harry's  full-length  portrait 
of  Dr.  Erskine  is  now  looked  at  by  few — its  colours  are 
lading  away ;  but  so  long  as  Guy  Mannering  survives,  that 
other  picture,  which  Sir  Walter  has  drawn  of  the  form  and 
attitude  and  action  of  the  aged  minister  in  the  pulpit  of 
Greyfriars,  will  be  hanging  in  the  world's  galleries  before 
all  eyes,  and  Pleydell's  truthful  testimony  to  Dr.  Erskine's 
character  and  worth  be  listened  to. 

The  eldest  son  of  the  author  of  the  Institutes  by  his 
second  marriage,  with  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Stirling  of  Keir, 
was  James,  who  succeeded  to  the  estate  of  Cardross,  and 
Avho  married  a  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Elgin.  The  second 
son  was  David,  who  practised  as  a  Writer  to  the  Signet  in 
Edinburgh, — "  allowed,"  says  Sir  Harry  Moncreiff,1  "  by  all 
competent  judges,  to  have  been  one  of  the  ablest  and  most 
honourable  men  whom  his  profession  has  ever  produced." 
His  success  corresponded  with  his  ability  and  integrity, 
one  fruit  of  which  was  the  purchase  of  the  estate  of 
1  Life  and  Writings  of  John  Erskine,  D.D.,  p.  11. 


LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


Linlathen,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Dundee,  possessed  now 
by  his  grandson.  From  the  family  record  the  following 
abstract  is  taken  : — 

David  Erskine  and  Ann  Graham,  married  29th  April  1781. 

John,  born  22d  February  1782  ;  died  3d  August      1789. 

William,  born  1st  October  1783  ;  died  30th  May       1784. 

Ann,  born  4th  September  1786  ;  died  5th  May          1804. 

James,  born  2d  November  1787  ;  died  26th  August  1816. 

Thomas,  born  13th  October  1788  ;  died  20th  March    1870. 

Christian,  born  19th  October  17S9;  died  1st  December  1S66. 

David,  born  1st  October  1791  ;  died  23d  March     1867. 

Accompanied  by  his  wife  and  his  cousin,  Miss  Ann 
Erskine  of  Cardross — leaving  his  children  in  charge  of 
their  grandmother  at  Airth — the  father  of  this  family 
went  to  Italy  in  search  of  health,  and  died  at  Naples  on 
the  5th  April  1791.  On  her  return  from  laying  her  hus- 
band in  the  grave  there,  Mrs.  Erskine  resided  for  about  a 
year  at  Airth,  and  it  was  there  that  her  youngest  daughter 
was  born,  to  whom  in  consequence  her  father's  name — 
David — was  given,  rather  an  unusual  one  for  a  female  to 
bear.  On  leaving  Airth,  Linlathen  was  of  course  open  for 
their  residence,  but  Mrs.  Erskine,  for  the  children's  educa- 
tion, preferred  remaining  in  Edinburgh. 

The  first  glimpse  we  get  of  Thomas  is  one  given  by 
himself.  "  I  remember,"  he  once  said  to  the  Dean  of 
Westminster,  "  in  1793 — I  was  then  five  years  old — the 
immense  impression  produced  by  the  death  of  Louis  XVI. 
Bruce  the  traveller  came  in  a  snow-storm  to  call  at  the 
house  where  I  was  staying.  Mrs.  Henderson,  the  house- 
keeper, being  asked  who  it  was  that  had  arrived — '  Wha 
is  it  % '  she  exclaimed ;  '  why,  wha  should  it  be  but  Kin- 
naird,  greetin'  as  if  there  werena  a  saunt  on  earth  but 
himsel'  and  the  King  of  France.'  " 


ANCESTRY  AND  EARLIER  YEARS. 


The  place  where  Thomas  was  at  this  time  living  was 
Airth  Castle,  near  to  which  Kinnaird  House  lay.  Mrs. 
Graham  of  Airth  was  the  only  grandmother  that  he  ever 
knew ;  and  deep  indeed  must  have  been  the  impression 
which  one  in  every  way  so  remarkable  made  upon  his 
childhood.  He  saw  in  her  a  striking  variation  from  that 
type  of  strict  Presbyterian  piety  which  a  long  line  of  his 
paternal  ancestry  had  exhibited,  and  of  which  a  living  and 
most  attractive  specimen  had  been  before  his  eyes  in 
that  venerable  uncle  around  whose  knees  from  infancy 
he  had  played.  Mrs.  Graham  of  Airth,  a  Stirling  of  Ar- 
doch,  was  an  Episcopalian,  and  a  Jacobite  of  the  highest 
and  purest  type.  For  the  Georges  she  never  prayed. 
Every  Sunday,  at  the  hour  when  the  bell  of  the  parish 
church  summoned  her  neighbours  to  the  Presbyterian  wor- 
ship, she  had  the  Episcopal  Service  read  in  her  own 
dwelling,  the  windows  of  which  looked  into  the  church- 
yard. But  there  was  no  austerity  either  in  her  politics 
or  her  religion,  and  the  spirit  of  a  deep  and  gentle  piety, 
in  varying  forms,  appears  to  have  spread  among  her 
daughters,  of  whom  Mrs.  David  Erskine,  Thomas's  mother, 
was  the  eldest. 

Mrs.  Graham's  second  daughter,  Mary,  married  John 
Stirling  of  Kippendavie  and  Kippenross,  whose  home  sup- 
plied no  less  than  thirteen  cousins  to  Thomas  Erskine ; 
one  daughter  of  the  family,  Katherine,  becoming  the  wife 
of  his  brother  James,  and  another,  the  youngest  daughter, 
Jane,1  his  own  peculiar  friend.  He  was  accustomed  in  after 
life  to  associate  her  and  the  Duchesse  de  Broglie  as  the  two 

1  In  her  later  life  she  lived  much  in  Paris,  and  counted  among  her  many 
friends  there  Ary  Schefi'er.  In  his  "  Cliristus  Consolator,"  this  eminent 
artist  had  presented  in  one  of  the  figures  his  ideal  of  female  beauty,  and 
was  greatly  struck,  on  being  first  introduced  to  Miss  Stirling,  to  find  in 
her  the  almost  exact  embodiment  of  that  ideal.  She  was  introduced  after- 
wards in  many  of  his  pictures. 


LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


most  remarkable  women  he  had  ever  met.  The  only  one 
of  this  family  Avho  survived  Mr.  Erskine  was  Captain  James 
Stirling  of  Glentyan ;  who  was  not  only  his  much-loved 
friend  through  life,  but  was  closely  associated  with  him 
in  his  religious  history  and  love  of  art.  In  the  days 
of  his  boyhood,  Thomas  was  often  at  Kippenross.  One 
can  easily  imagine  how  warm  the  welcome  was  that 
greeted  him — sympathy  with  his  widowed  mother  giving 
tenderness  to  his  uncle's  and  aunt's  embrace ;  bright  and 
happy  groups  of  winning  cousinhood  gathering  around 
him,  carrying  him  off  to  sport  under  the  shadows  of 
Kippendavie's  noble  trees,  or  perhaps  to  wander  to  the 
old  Cathedral  of  Dunblane,  which  lay  quite  near,  and  to 
tread  along  the  good  Bishop's  Walk.  Thirty  years  after- 
wards he  writes,  "I  live  at  Albano,  on  the  road  to  Rome. 
The  whole  district  is  beautiful  to  the  utmost  wish,  and  full 
of  delicious  shade  from  immense  trees,  chiefly  evergreen 
oaks,  of  which  there  is  one  as  large  as  the  Kippenross  tree, 
indeed  much  larger — thirty  feet  round  at  four  feet  from 
the  ground." 

Other  and  stronger  links  than  those  of  its  loveliness  bound 
his  heart  to  Kippenross.  "  I  am  at  dear  Kippenross,"  he 
writes  to  his  cousin  Rachel  on  his  return  from  Italy  in  1828. 
"  It  is  a  profound  enjoyment  to  me,  for  its  loveliness  has 
been  mixed  up  with  many  of  my  earliest  and  most  endur- 
ing impressions,  with  many  joys  and  many  sorrows,  with 
things  of  earth  and  things  of  heaven,  and  the  sight  of  it 
recalls  them  all  and  gives  a  freshness  to  memory,  and 
surrounds  me  anew  with  those  who  are  dead  or  distant.  .  .  . 
I  need  not  speak  to  you  about  it,  but  there  is  a  spell  in  it 
on  my  spirit  beyond  what  I  have  experienced  from  any 
other  spot  on  earth." 

Our  next  glimpse  of  Thomas  is  in  his  seventh  year. 
Ann,  his  eldest  sister,  had  a  spinal  affection.    Her  mother, 


ANCESTRY  AND  EARLIER   YEARS.  9 

hearing  that  there  was  a  person  in  Hinckley  in  Leicester- 
shire who  had  effected  many  wonderful  cures  of  that 
disease,  took  her  daughter  there,  and  finding  that  in  order 
to  accomplish  her  purpose  she  would  have  to  remain  in 
England  for  some  months,  sent  for  James  and  Thomas. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hay  of  Dunse  Castle  brought  the  boys  up  to 
Leicestershire,  taking  with  them  a  daughter  of  their  own, 
whom  they  left  at  Hinckley.  This  daughter,  Miss  Hay  of 
Kingston  Grange,  writes  to  a  friend  on  17th  October 
1876:  "I  lived  a  year  in  the  family  of  Mr.  Erskine's 
dear  mother,  and  was  treated  like  one  of  her  own  children. 
I  was  between  seven  and  eight  years  old  when  I  Avent, 
and  Mr.  Erskine  six  months  younger,  and  to  us  that 
year  seemed  an  age,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  a  life-long 
friendship."  Miss  Hay's  mother  was  one  of  an  older 
group  of  cousins  than  those  of  Kippenross  ;  the  children 
of  that  uncle  of  Cardross  and  Lady  Christian  his  wife, 
spoken  of  with  so  much  veneration  in  the  following 
letters.  Their  eldest  daughter  (Janet)  married  Mr.  Hay 
of  Dunse  Castle,  and  their  fourth  daughter  (Matilda)  Mr. 
Graham  of  Gartur,  a  place  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Stirling. 
Marion  (Manie)  and  Rachel  were  two  unmarried  daughters; 
the  latter,  the  "dear  dear  cousin  Rachel,"  to  whom  so 
many  of  the  letters  given  in  this  volume  were  addressed. 

Writing  from  Gartur  in  1825,  Mr.  Erskine  says,  "I  am 
going  to  Cardross  to-day ;  I  have  not  been  there  for 
nearly  twenty  years,  but  I  passed  some  part  of  my  child- 
hood there,  and  it  looks  beautiful  and  venerable  to  my 
memory.  "  I  remember,"  he  says  twelve  years  later,  in 
1837,  "the  last  vacation  that  James  and  I  spent  at  Car 
dross  with  our  little  dog  Jemmy.  I  had  not  been  well,  and 
we  came  out  before  the  regular  time ;  they  were  cutting 
the  lawn  for  hay,  and  I  remember  my  uncle  and  aunt 
walking  among  the  hay-makers,  looking  so  kind   and  so 


10  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 

venerable,  and  so  much  loved  and  so  much  honoured." 
"What  are  you  doing?"  he  writes  from  Paris  to  dear 
cousin  Kachel  in  1838.  "Enjoying  lovely  Cardross,  fair 
and  noble  Cardross,  with  its  grave  square  tower,  and  its 
trees,  under  which  our  fathers'  fathers  have  played,  and  its 
beautiful  extent  of  grass,  and  its  seclusion,  and  its  simple 
peasantry."  Death  had  removed  Mrs.  Hay,  and  Eachel 
Avrites  to  him  that  her  sister  Mrs.  Graham  was  dying  at 
Gartur,  when  in  1839  he  writes  from  Geneva  to  his  sister : 
"  Our  three  cousins  have  a  place  to  themselves  in  my  mind, 
quite  apart  from  all  other  people ;  they  are  connected  with 
my  early  remembrance  of  their  father  and  mother  and 
of  Cardross,  which  is  the  purest  remembrance  that  I 
have." 

On  returning  from  Hinckley  to  Edinburgh,  Thomas  and 
his  brother  were  sent  to  the  High  School,  then  under  the 
Rectorship  of  Dr.  Adam.  Of  their  course  and  progress 
there  nothing  is  now  known.  Two  memories  of  his  school- 
boy days  Thomas  carried  with  him,  vivid  to  the  close  of 
life — one  of  profound  regard  for,  and  tender  sympathy 
with,  the  Rector ;  the  other  of  recoil  and  indignation  at 
the  sufferings  he  had  seen  inflicted  by  one  of  the  Masters 

the  Willie  of  "  the  peck  o'  maut  " — who,  as  Sir  Walter 

tells  us,  was  "inhumanly  cruel  to  the  boys  under  his 
charge." 

In  1802  the  boys  were  sent  to  a  school  at  Durham, 
returning  from  which,  Thomas  entered  as  a  student  in 
the  University  of  Edinburgh.  Of  his  life  at  College  as  little 
can  now  be  known  as  of  his  life  at  school.  We  know  more 
of  his  daily  recreations  than  of  his  daily  studies,  it  having 
been  his  practice  to  walk  every  day  to  and  from  the  top  of 
Arthur's  Seat,  a  distance  which  he  made  a  point  of  accom- 
plishing always  within  an  hour.  Having  attended  the 
Law  classes,  and  passed  the  necessary  trials,  he  was  admitted 


^et.  22.  ANCESTRY  AND  EARLIER  YEARS.  11 

a  member  of  the  Faculty  of  Advocates  in  1810,  and  re- 
mained in  Edinburgh  for  the  next  six  years. 

The  years  during  which  he  attended  the  Parliament 
House  formed  one  of  the  most  brilliant  periods  in  the 
history  of  the  Scottish  Bar.  Walter  Scott  was  then  daily 
to  be  seen  sitting  at  the  table  as  one  of  the  Clerks  of 
the  Court  of  Session,  wondering  eyes  fixed  on  him,  as 
JVaverley,  Guy  Mannering,  The  Antiquary,  The  Tales  of  My 
Landlord,  appeared  in  quick  succession,  the  mystery  of  their 
authorship  gradually  unfolding  itself.  The  Edinburgh 
Review,  established  a  few  years  before,  was  at  the  height  of 
its  popularity  and  power  :  Jeffrey,  Cockburn,  Fullerton, 
with  all  of  Avhom  our  young  advocate  was  on  terms  of 
closest  friendship,  now  at  the  height  of  their  fame  as 
pleaders.  His  brother's  marriage  in  1811,  and  residence 
at  Linlathen,  removing  from  his  side  the  influence 
hitherto  the  most  potent,  threw  Thomas  Erskine  in 
his  twenty-third  year  into  the  very  heart  of  a  society  as 
peculiarly  fitted  to  impress  as  he  was  open  to  the  impres- 
sion. One  of  the  effects  he  has  himself  recorded.  "  I  was 
brought  up  from  my  childhood,"  he  says  in  the  latest  of 
his  writings,  "in  the  belief  of  the  supernatural  and 
miraculous  in  connection  with  religion,  especially  in 
connection  with  the  person  and  life  and  teaching  of 
Jesus  Christ ;  and  like  many  in  the  present  day,  I  came, 
in  after  life,  to  have  misgivings  as  to  the  credibility  of 
this  wonderful  history.  But  the  patient  study  of  the 
narrative  and  of  its  place  in  the  history  of  the  world,  and 
the  perception  of  a  light  in  it  which  entirely  satisfied  my 
reason  and  conscience,  finally  overcame  these  misgivings, 
and  forced  on  me  the  conviction  of  its  truth."1 

Those  misgivings  came  to  him  at  the  time  of  his  close 
association  with  men,  few  of  whom  made  any  profession 

1  The  Spiritual  Order,  and  other  Papers  (2d  Edit.),  pp.  82-3. 


12  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSK1NE. 

of  a  faith  in  Christianity.  Other  things  beside  patient 
study  conspired  to  re-establish  him  in  the  faith  of  his 
childhood.  His  cousin,  Patrick  Stirling  of  Kippenross,1  to 
whom  he  was  much  attached,  was  a  few  years  his  senior. 
After  serving  for  a  short  time  in  the  Peninsula  as  captain 
of  the  14th  Light  Dragoons,  he  had  married,  the  same 
year  that  Thomas  Erskine  was  called  to  the  Bar.  When 
but  thirty-three  years  of  age  a  mortal  malady  fell  upon  him. 
He  went  to  the  south  of  England  in  vain.  Death  drew  near, 
and  he  longed  to  see  before  he  died,  his  youngest  child, 
an  only  daughter,  little  more  than  a  year  old.  Thomas 
Erskine  willingly  undertook  the  task  of  conveying  her. 
They  reached  Hastings  in  time  for  the  dying  father's  wish 
to  be  gratified,  and  to  witness  such  singular  manifestations 
of  trust  and  peace,  and  lively  hope  on  his  part,  as  carried 
home  to  his  cousin's  heart  a  profound  impression  at  once 
of  the  power  and  preciousness  of  Christian  faith.  Not 
only  was  his  own  faith  so  fixed  thereby  as  not  again  to 
falter, — for  the  first  time  a  zeal  to  awaken  a  like  faith 
in  others  was  kindled.  A  short  time  afterwards  another 
dear  friend  was  on  his  death-bed,  to  whom  he  ventured  to 
speak  of  that  faith.  His  doing  so  was  so  promptly  and 
keenly  resented  that  he  was  instantly  turned  out  of  the 
room.  But  the  word  spoken  had  not  been  in  vain.  His 
dying  friend  relented,  sent  for  him,  and  begged  him  to 
remain  with  him  to  the  last,  which  he  did.  Then  followed 
the  death  of  his  only  brother  James,  of  typhus  fever,  at 
Broadstairs.  They  had  been  close  companions  from 
infancy  till  1805,  when  James  joined  the  41st  Kegiment, 

1  Tn  Dunblane  Cathedral  there  is  a  marble  tablet  with  the  following 
inscription  : — "Sacred  to  the  memory  of  John  Stirling  of  Kippendavie, 
and  Patrick  Stirling,  his  eldest  son,  who,  'with  a  lively  hope  of  an  inherit- 
ance incorruptible,'  departed  this  life,  a.d.  1816.  Patrick  at  Hastings. 
30th  March,  aged  33  ;  John  at  Kippenross,  17th  June,  aged  73,  and  are 
interred  in  one  grave  in  the  family  burying-place." 


ANCESTRY  AND  EARLIER  YEARS.  13 

with  which  he  served  in  Canada  till  1808.  He  served 
afterwards  as  captain  of  the  87  th  Regiment,  in  the 
Walcheren  Expedition,  and  retired  in  1810.  In  1811  he 
married  his  cousin  Katherine  Stirling  of  Kippenross,  and 
went  to  reside  at  Linlathen.  Five  happy  years  were 
spent  there.  During  those  years  Thomas  was  often  with 
them.  Four  children  were  born,  all  of  whom  died  within 
four  days  after  birth.  Looking  back  over  fifty  intervening 
years  Thomas  wrote  afterwards  to  his  friend  Dr.  Wylie  of 
Carluke  : — 

"  There  are  few  now  living  who  knew  Linlathen  when  lie, 
and  she  lived  there ;  but  no  one  who  was  ever  privileged 
to  see  it  could  forget  it.  I  think  my  brother  was  the  most 
remarkable  man  I  ever  knew.  On  looking  back  through 
a  long  vista  of  years,  during  which  I  have  come  in  contact 
with  many  remarkable,  unforgetable  persons,  he  stands  out 
by  himself,  as  one  in  whom  worth  of  moral  character, 
manliness,  truth,  and  perfect  regard  for  the  rights,  interests, 
and  feelings  of  every  human  being,  accomplished  more  in 
producing  the  sentiment  of  veneration  (I  would  even  say) 
than  I  have  known  produced  by  all  the  talents  in  the 
world,  accompanied  even  by  the  average  amount  of  moral 
endowment.  I  never  knew  a  young  man  venerated  except 
himself.1  He  was  only  a  year  older  than  myself,  and  I 
venerated  him  from  my  infancy  ;  and  dear  Mrs.  Erskine 
was  a  most  fitting  wife  for  him.  That  upper  world  must 
be  a  wonderful  meeting-place — meeting  in  God. — Yours 
ever  truly,  T.  ERSKINE." 

1  "This  young  man  must  have  made  a  strong  impression  on  others  than 
his  own  family,  for,  many  years  after  his  death,  General  Elphinston,  our 
Commander-in-chief  in  the  Afghan  war,  on  hearing  Mr.  Erskine's  name, 
asked  if  he  were  brother  to  Captain  Erskine  of  such-and-such  a  regi- 
ment, and,  on  being  answered  in  the  affirmative,  said,  '  He  was  the  best 
soldier  and  the  best  man  I  ever  knew.'  I  shall  never  forget  the  voice  in 
which  Mr.  Erskine  repeated  these  words." — Contemporary  Review,  May 
1870. 


14  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1816. 

Sir  Harry  Moncreiff,  who  must  have  known  him  well. 
says  of  James  Erskine,  that  "  he  died  in  the  prime  of  life, 
equally  regretted  for  the  good  sense  and  affectionate 
manners,  and  for  the  genuine  piety  and  purity  of  mind, 
which  eminently  distinguished  him."1 

It  were  vain  now  to  attempt  to  estimate  the  kind  and 
extent  of  that  moulding  power  which  such  an  elder  brother 
must  have  exerted,  and  equally  vain  to  estimate  the  depth 
of  the  impression  his  death  must  have  made.  The  only 
letters  connected  with  that  event  which  have  been  preserved 
are  the  following  : — 

Sept.  2,  1816. 

My  dear  Cousin,'2 — God's  thoughts  are  not  as  our 
thoughts,  nor  His  ways  as  our  ways.  May  He'  by  His 
Holy  Spirit  conform  our  wills  unto  His  holy  will. 
Katherine  is  wonderfully  supported,  but  it  is  an  awful 
blow.  Pray  for  us,  that  this  dispensation  may  be  sanctified 
to  us,  that  we  may  look  more  to  Christ,  that  we  may  look 
wholly  to  Christ.  Oh  !  there  is  nothing  else  of  any  conse- 
quence. We  live  in  the  midst  of  shadows,  and  we  think 
them  realities.  Lord,  open  Thou  our  eyes  that  we  may 
see  the  truth,  and  that  we  may  be  assured  that  Thy  love 
is  better  than  life.  "We  hardly  know  yet  what  has  happened 
to  us, — it  seems  a  troubled  dream ;  but  we  know  that  it  is 
the  Lord,  and  that  He  doeth  all  things  well.  K.  is  quite 
resigned,  quite  peaceful.  How  good  is  God  !  I  need  not 
write  any  more.  Let  us  pray. — Yours  most  affection- 
ately, T.  Erskine. 

Dundee,  Sept.  17. 
The  remains  of  my  brother  are  to  be  interred  on  Satur- 
day at  one  o'clock.  ...  I  left  our  mourners  really  well, 
and  resting  on  the  Rock  of  Ages. 

1  Life  of  Dr.  Erskine,  p.  11. 

2  Mrs.  Burnett  of  Kemnay,  daughter  of  Dr.  Charles  Stuart  of  Dunearn. 


mt.  27.         ANCESTRY  AND  EARLIER  YEARS.  15 


Sept.  22. 
Your  letter  grieved  my  soul.  If  I  had  such  another 
brother  to  lose,  I  would  willingly  give  up  my  earthly  joy 
in  him  to  cure  such  a  sorrow  as  yours.  But  it  cost  more 
to  redeem  a  soul.  ...  I  have  only  returned  from  paying 
the  last  duties  to  the  kindest  of  friends  and  brothers 
merely  mortal ;  my  heart  is  stunned  ;  I  have  lost  a  Chris- 
tian friend,  a  spiritual  guide.  But  thanks  be  to  God,  I  can 
look  to  the  Good  Shepherd,  and  can  trust  Him  for  the 
supply  of  all  my  wants,  for  remission  of  sins,  and  for 
renewal  of  heart,  and  for  faith  that  I  may  see  His  wise 
love  in  all  His  dispensations  towards  me.  Many  new  duties 
are  indeed  imposed  on  me,  and  I  beg  the  prayers  of  my 
friends  for  grace  to  discharge  them  to  the  glory  of  the 
Imposer.  I  have  just  written  to  my  poor  sister,  from  whom 
I  received  a  letter  yesterday.        She  is  well. — Farewell, 

T.  Erskine. 

The  new  duties  imposed  on  him  by  his  succession  to  the 
estate  of  Linlathen,  induced  Thomas  Erskine  to  leave 
Edinburgh  and  bid  farewell  to  the  Bar.  He  did  not  like 
to  do  so  without  some  expression  of  his  own  deep  and 
ardent  faith.  He  drew  up  a  paper,  which  he  thought  of 
putting  into  the  hands  of  his  companions  at  the  Bar  when 
he  parted  from  them.  Though  fully  and  carefully  written, 
this  paper  was  never  used  as  originally  intended.  It  lay 
bye  unthought  of,  till  he  became  so  well  known  and  so 
highly  esteemed  as  a  writer,  that  he  was  asked  to  furnish 
Introductory  Essays  to  some  of  Chalmers  and  Collins' 
Series  of  Select  Christian  Authors.  He  bethought  him  then 
of  the  paper — headed  "  Salvation  " — which  he  had  drawn 
up  some  years  before,  and  handed  it  to  the  publishers.  It 
appeared  in  1825  as  an  Introductory  Essay  to  the  Letters 
of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Rutherford.     It  merits  special  regard  at 


16  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


once  from  the  date  and  the  object  of  its  composition.  The 
reader  not  only  will  find  in  it  the  same  purity,  ease,  and 
gracefulness  of  style,  and  the  same  felicity  of  illustration,  by 
which  his  after  writings  were  characterised,  but  that  key-note 
of  doctrinal  theology  struck  which  ran  through  them  all. 
"It  follows,"  he  says,  "  that  a  restoration  to  spiritual  health, 
or  conformity  to  the  Divine  character,  is  the  ultimate  object 
of  God  in  His  dealings  with  the  children  of  men.  Whatever 
else  God  hath  done  with  regard  to  men,  has  been  subsi- 
diary, and  with  a  view  to  this ;  even  the  unspeakable  work 
of  Christ,  and  pardon  freely  offered  through  His  cross,  have 
been  but  means  to  a  further  end  ;  and  that  end  is,  that  the 
adopted  children  of  the  family  of  God  might  be  conformed 
to  the  likeness  of  their  elder  brother, — that  they  might  re- 
semble Him  in  character,  and  thus  enter  into  His  joy.  .  .  . 
The  sole  object  of  Christian  belief  is  to  produce  the  Chris- 
tian character,  and  unless  this  is  done  nothing  is  done."1 

i  Letters  of  Samuel  Rutherford.  Introd.  Essay,  pp.  xiii.,  xxv.  This 
Essay,  along  with  others,  is  appended  to  the  Tenth  Edition  of  the 
"  Internal  Evidence,"  Edinburgh,  1S78. 


a:t.  29. 


DR.  CHALMERS.  17 


CHAPTER    II. 

Letters  to  Dr.  Chalmers,  and  publication  of  "Remarks  on  the 
Internal  Evidence  for  the  Truth  of  Revealed  Religion." 

The  first  incident  of  the  new  life  at  Linlathen  was  the 
marriage  there,  on  the  14th  October  1817,  of  Mr.  Erskine's 
sister  Christian,  to  Charles,  fourth  son  of  William  Stirling 
of  Keir.  Cadder  House,  in  which  the  newly  married 
couple  took  up  their  abode,  lay  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
of  Glasgow.  The  house  of  a  sister  to  whom  he  was  so 
tenderly  attached  was  as  a  second  home  to  Mr.  Erskine, 
and  his  earliest  visits  to  it  brought  him  to  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Glasgow  at  the  very  time  when  Dr.  Chalmers  was 
at  the  height  of  his  fame  there  as  a  preacher.  Acquaint- 
ance quickly  ripened  into  friendship,  and  it  so  happens 
that  the  only  letters  of  Mr.  Erskine  during  the  years  1 81 8 
and  1819,  which  have  been  preserved,  are  those  addressed 
to  his  new  friend.  It  was  after  a  first  visit  to  Dr. 
Chalmers,  in  the  autumn  of  1818,  that  the  following  letters 
were  written  : — 

1.    TO  DR.  CHALMERS. 

My  dear  Friend, — lam  under  the  government  of  others 
at  present,  so  you  must  excuse  the  fluctuation  of  my  plans. 
I  am  afraid  that  I  cannot  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you 
again  at  this  time.     I  am  sorry  for  it,  but  I  hope  soon  to 

B 


18  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1818 


meet  you  here  or  elsewhere.  I  hope  that  I  have  benefited 
by  my  visit  to  you.  Certainly  I  was  much  struck  with 
some  circumstances  in  your  conduct,  and  I  will  tell  you 
what  these  are.  You  have  been  much  followed,  by  great 
and  small,  by  learned  and  ignorant,  and  yet  you  listened, 
with  the  meek  candour  of  a  learner,  to  one  whom  you  could 
not  but  consider  as  your  inferior  by  far.  If  you  had  opened 
to  me  all  mysteries  and  all  knowledge,  you  could  not  have 
brought  to  my  conscience  the  strong  conviction  of  the 
necessity  and  the  reality  of  Christianity  with  half  the  force 
that  this  deportment  of  yours  impressed  upon  me.  .  .  . 

I  need  not  say  how  delighted  I  should  be  were  you  to 
favour  me  with  a  visit  at  Linlathen.  I  never  expect  an 
answer  to  my  letters  from  you,  so  anything  in  that  way 
will  be  only  an  unlooked-for  pleasure,  as  I  know  the  scan- 
tiness of  your  time. — Yours,  with  much  affection  and 
respect,  T.  Ersklne. 

2.    TO  DR.  CHALMERS. 

Linlathen,  5th  Sept.  1818. 

My  dear  Sir, — I  am  much  gratified  with  the  prospect 
which  your  letter  holds  out  to  me  of  hearing  from  you 
occasionally.  To  those  whose  hearts  are  apt  to  get  slack 
and  cold  amidst  the  difficulties  of  the  narrow  way,  every- 
thing which  acts  as  a  stimulus  is  most  desirable,  and  the 
sympathy  of  our  fellow-travellers  does  stimulate  j  although 
I  know  also  by  experience,  that  there  are  few  things  which 
require  to  be  connected  with  a  sterner  guard  over  our  own 
hearts,  because  there  are  few  things  which  tend  more  to 
self-deception,  as  we  easily  imagine  ourselves  to  be  in  the 
right  way  while  we  are  talking  about  it.    ... 

It  seems  to  me  of  great  consequence  to  remember  that 
the  connection  between  the  Christian  faith  and  character 
is  not  arbitrary  but  necessary, — that  it  is  not  the  con- 


,CT.  30. 


DR.   CHALMERS.  19 


nection  which  subsists  between  the  fir  and  the  ship  in 
which  it  is  inserted  as  a  mast,  but  the  connection  which 
subsists  between  the  fir  and  its  root  before  it  is  cut  down. 
And  this  constitutes  the  closeness  of  the  union  which  sub- 
sists between  Christ  and  His  people;  His  work  of  love 
received  by  faith  becomes  the  principle  and  root  of  spiritual 
life  within  them.  This  principle  is  not  subject  to  the  in- 
fluence or  condemnation  of  sin,  it  is  the  immortal  tie  which 
binds  the  Father  of  spirits  to  all  His  family  throughout  the 
universe.  It  is  sweet  to  think  of  those  who,  having  by 
mercy  been  made  partakers  of  this  new  and  interminable 
life,  have  departed  from  this  scene  of  death  to  a  nearer  and 
fuller  enjoyment  of  the  fountain  of  their  spiritual  being. 
They  are  like  Him,  for  they  see  Him  as  He  is.  The  veil 
being  removed,  like  mirrors  they  reflect  back  His  own  char- 
acter, and  thus  partake  His  joy. 

On  this  day  three  years  ago  I  witnessed  the  departure 
of  a  friend  who  I  hope  is  now  with  the  Lord.  What  a 
comfort  it  is  to  think  that  your  father  according  to  the 
flesh  is  a  branch  of  the  true  vine ! x  .  .  . — Yours  with 
much  regard,  T.  Erskine. 

3.    TO  THE  SAME. 

Lin  lath  en,  2\st  Nov.  1818. 
My  DEAR  Sir, — I  am  afraid  that  you  will  begin  to  think 
my  correspondence  rather  troublesome,  especially  if  occa- 
sionally interlarded  by  such  packages  as  that  which  has  I 
hope  already  reached  you  by  the  Perth  coach.  It  is  a  con- 
siderable tax  upon  your  kindness  and  patience  to  ask  you 
to  read  that  paper,  but  yet  I  entertain  hopes  that  you  will 
do  it.  It  contains  views  of  divine  truth  which  have  of  late 
very  much  commended  themselves  to  my  understanding — 
solving  many  apparent  difficulties,  and  exhibiting  a  beauti- 
1  Dr.  Chalmers's  father  died  26th  July  1818. 


20  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSK1NE. 


ful  consistency  through  the  whole  scheme.     With  those 
views  also  I  think  the  internal  evidence  of  religion  is  inti- 
mately connected.     In  this  manner  : — The  Christian  char- 
acter, however  much  it  may  be  despised  or  hated  in  prac- 
tice, yet  in  theory  commands  the  approbation  even  of  the 
natural  reason.     Supposing  it  to  be  perfected,  it  is  neces- 
sarily accompanied  by  perfect  happiness.     But  then  the 
formation  of  this  character  is  opposed  by  the  strongest  and 
most  active  principles  of  our  constitution.     Pride,  the  pas- 
sions, and  the  appetites,  are  in  constant  operation,  and  are 
in  direct  opposition  to  the  formation  of  this  character ;  and 
even  the  perception  of  the  evil  of  sin,  which  is  the  first 
element  of  holiness,  drives  us  from  it  by  producing  despair. 
Now  the  gospel  presents  us  with  a  history  of  facts,  the 
belief  of  which  must  by  the  nature  of  things  produce  this 
character,  bringing  our  thoughts  and  wills  into  union  with 
the  Supreme  Will,  and  increasing  our  sense  of  the  evil  of  sin 
whilst  it  annihilates  despair.    In  short,  the  gospel  is  most  pre- 
cisely suited  to  the  wants  and  the  diseases  of  the  human  soul. 
My  soul  is  diseased — I  see  to  a  demonstration  that  the 
gospel  is  every  way  calculated  to  remove  this  disease,  that, 
if  accepted,  it  must  remove  it.     I  can  discover  no  other 
cure.     The  gospel  is  then  the  true  remedy,  and  nothing 
but  a  refutation  of  what  now  seems  to  me  an  axiom  can 
tear  me  from  it.     I  must  be  shown  some  other  remedy 
superior  to  this,  or  I  must  be  shown  that  this  is  no  remedy 
— all  other  argument  is  irrelevant.     I  may  be  told  about 
difficulties  attending  the  facts,  but  I  still  insist  that  it  is 
true  in  morals ;  it  is  true  in  nature,  it  is  true  in  the  con- 
stitution of  man,  it  is  true  in  the  character  of  God.     "  Whe- 
ther he  be  a  sinner,  I  know  not ;  one  thing  I  know,  that 
whereas  I  was  blind,  now  I  can  see."     And  it  is  not  only 
after  the  cure  that  I  see  this ;  it  was  the  sight  of  this  suit- 
ableness which  attracted  me.     I  saw  that  it  was  a  pearl  of 


JET.  30. 


DR.  CHALMERS.  21 


great  price  ;  its  value  was  stamped  upon  it  by  Him  whose 
image  it  is.  It  is  this  suitableness  which  converts  the 
infidel,  as  well  as  confirms  and  advances  the  believer.  .  .  . 
I  entreat  your  prayers  for  me,  that  my  heart  may  be 
broken  and  contrite,  deeply  impressed  with  a  sense  of  sin, 
and  with  the  view  of  the  freeness  of  Divine  grace.  May 
your  Master  direct  and  prosper  your  labours  for  others, 
and  at  the  same  time  keep  your  own  heart  and  mind  in 
the  knowledge  and  love  of  Him. — Farewell.  Yours  affec- 
tionately, T.  Erskine. 

When  you  have  done  with  my  packet  you  may  send  it 
to  my  sister. 

The  package  which  accompanied  this  letter  was  the  first 
draft  of  the  "  Remarks  on  the  Internal  Evidence  for  the 
Truth  of  Revealed  Religion."  It  thus  appears  that  the 
first  use  to  which  Mr.  Erskine  turned  the  leisure  and  quiet 
of  his  residence  at  Linlathen,  was  to  exhibit  as  lucidly  and 
impressively  as  he  could,  and  for  the  benefit  of  others,  that 
proof  of  the  Divine  origin  of  Christianity  by  which  he  had 
himself  been  so  peculiarly  and  powerfully  attracted,  con- 
vinced, impressed.  The  personal  interest  thus  attaching  to 
the  earliest  of  his  publications  is  enhanced  by  what  is  told 
us  in  the  latest  of  them  : — 

"  When  I  ask  myself,"  he  says,  "  what  reason  or  right  I 
have  to  believe  that  a  man  who  lived  in  Palestine  1860 
years  ago  was  the  Son  of  God,  in  order  to  be  certain  that 
in  this  belief  I  have  hold  of  a  substance  and  not  of  a  mere 
shadow,  I  must  discern  in  the  history  itself  a  light  and 
truth  which  will  meet  the  demands  both  of  my  reason  and 
conscience.  In  fact,  however  true  the  history  may  be,  it 
cannot  be  of  any  moral  or  spiritual  benefit  to  me  until  I 
apprehend  its  truth  and  meaning.  This,  and  nothing  less 
than  this,  is  what  I  require,  not  only  in  this  great  concern, 


22  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKWE.  1820. 

but  in  all  others ;  for  the  only  real  instruction  is  that  which 
helps  us  to  perceive  the  truth  and  meaning  of  things,  not 
that  which  merely  asserts  that  such  and  such  things  are 
true,  and  insists  on  our  accepting  them  as  such. 

"  It  has  been  the  chief  aim  of  my  life  to  possess  such  an 
apprehension  of  the  truth  of  Christianity  as  this;  and  it  is  now 
forty-five  years  since  I  ventured  to  give  through  the  press 
an  utterance  to  this  desire,  and  to  accompany  it  with  a  sketch 
of  the  meagre  progress  I  had  then  made  in  realising  it." 1 

The  "Remarks  on  the  Internal  Evidence,"  etc.,  was 
published  in  1820,  forty  years  before  this  passage  was 
written.  It  met  with  an  immediate  and  universal  welcome 
— nine  editions  having  been  called  for  within  nine  suc- 
ceeding years.2  Its  peculiar  charms  of  method,  style,  and 
illustration,  were  new  to  the  public.  There  was  much 
in  the  volume  to  attract  interest  and  kindle  admira- 
tion, nothing  that  awakened  any  suspicion  or  distrust. 
The  Edinburgh  "  Christian  Instructor," 3  prompt  as  that 
organ  of  the  Evangelical  party  in  Scotland  was  to  detect 
the  slightest  deviation  from  Calvinistic  theology,  found 
nothing  to  find  fault  with,  had  nothing  but  lavish  and 
unlimited  praise  to  bestow.  And  yet  many  of  those 
views  which,  when  more  fully  expressed  afterwards,  met 
with  so  severe  a  condemnation,  are  to  be  found  here  in 
more  than  their  germ.  It  was  in  his  happiest  manner 
that  this  new  writer  indicated  what  the  kind  of  evidence 
in  favour  of  Christianity  was  which  he  intended  to  unfold. 

("  I  shall  suppose  that  the  steam-engine,  and  the  appli- 
cation of  it  to  the  movement  of  vessels,  was  known  in 
China  in  the  days  of  Archimedes ;  and  that  a  foolish  lying 

1  TJie  Spiritual  Order,  p.  82. 

2  It  was  translated  into  French  by  the  Duchess  de  Broglie,  and  published 
at  Paris  in  1822  under  the  title,  "  Reflexions  sur  l'evidence  intrinseque  de 
la  verite  du  Christianisme." 

3  See  an  elaborate  review. 


jet.  32.  REMARKS  ON  THE  INTERNAL  EVIDENCE.        23 

traveller  head  found  his  way  from  Sicily  to  China,  and  had 
there  seen  an  exhibition  of  a  steam-boat,  and  had  been 
admitted  to  examine  the  mechanical  apparatus  of  it, — and 
upon  his  return  home,  had,  amongst  many  palpable  fables, 
related  the  true  particulars  of  this  exhibition, — what  feel- 
ing would  this  relation  have  probably  excited  in  his  audi- 
ence. .  .  .  Some  of  the  rabble  might  probably  give  a 
stupid  and  wondering  kind  of  credit  to  the  whole ;  whilst 
the  judicious  but  unscientific  hearers  would  reject  the 
whole.  Now,  supposing  that  the  relation  had  come  to  the 
ears  of  Archimedes,  and  that  he  had  sent  for  the  man,  and 
interrogated  him  ;  and,  from  his  unorderly  and  unscientific, 
but  accurate  specification  of  boilers,  and  cylinders,  and  pipes, 
and  furnaces,  and  wheels,  had  drawn  out  the  mechanical 
theory  of  the  steam-boat, — he  might  have  told  his  friends, 
'  The  traveller  may  be  a  liar ;  but  this  is  a  truth.  I  have 
a  stronger  evidence  for  it  than  his  testimony,  or  the  testi- 
mony of~any  man  :  it  is  a  truth  mthe  nature  of  tKings\ 
The  effect  which  the  man  has  described  is  the  legitimate' 
and  certain  result  of  the  apparatus  which  he  has  described. 
If  he  has  fabricated  this  account,  he  must  be  a  great  philo- 
sopher. At  all  events,  his  narration  is  founded  on  an  un- 
questionable general  truth.'  .  .  .  We  reason  precisely  in 
the  same  way  with  regard  to  men  and  their  actions.  .  .  . 
If  an  intimate  and  judicious  friend  of  Julius  Csesar  had 
retired  to  some  distant  corner  of  the  world,  before  the  com- 
mencement of  the  political  career  of  that  wonderful  man, 
and  had  there  received  an  accurate  history  of  every  circum- 
stance of  his  conduct,  how  would  he  have  received  it  1  He 
would  certainly  have  believed  it ;  and  not  merely  because 
he  knew  that  Caesar  was  ambitious,  but  also  because  he 
could  discern  that  every  step  of  his  progress,  as  recorded 
in  the  history,  was  adapted  with  admirable  intelligence  to 
accomplish  the  object  of  his  ambition.     His  belief  of  the 


24  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1820, 

history,  therefore,  would  rest  on  two  considerations, — first, 
that  the  object  attributed  by  it  to  Caesar  corresponded  with 
the  general  principle  under  which  he  had  classed  the  moral 
character  of  Caesar ;  and,  secondly,  that  there  was  evident, 
through  the  course  of  the  history,  a  perfect  adaptation  of 
means  to  an  end.  He  would  have  believed  just  on  the 
same  principle  that  compelled  Archimedes  to  believe  the 
history  of  the  steam-boat. 

"  In  all  these  processes  of  reasoning,  we  have  examples  of 
conviction,  upon  an  evidence  which  is,  most  strictly  speak- 
ing, internal, — an  evidence  altogether  independent  of  our 
confidence  in  the  veracity  of  the  narrator  of  the  facts.  .  .  . 

"  The  first  faint  outline  of  Christianity  presents  to  us  a 
view  of  God  operating  on  the  characters  of  men  through  a 
manifestation  of  his  own  character,  in  order  that,  by  lead- 
ing them  to  participate,  in  some  measure,  of  his  moral  like- 
ness, they  may  also  in  some  measure  participate  of  his  hap- 
piness. .  .  . 

"  The  object  of  this  Dissertation  is  to  anatyse  the  com- 
ponent parts  of  the  Christian  scheme  of  doctrine,  with 
reference  to  its  bearings  both  on  the  character  of  God  and 
on  the  character  of  man  ;  and  to  demonstrate,  that  its  facts 
not  only  present  an  expressive  exhibition  of  all  the  moral 
cmalities  which  can  be  conceived  to  reside  in  the  Divine 
mind,  but  also  contain  all  those  objects  which  have  a 
natural  tendency  to  excite  and  suggest  in  the  human  mind 
that  combination  of  moral  feelings  which  has  been  termed 
moral  perfection.  We  shall  thus  arrive  at  a  conclusion 
with  regard  to  the  facts  of  revelation,  analogous  to  that  at 
which  Archimedes  arrived  with  regard  to  the  narrative  of 
the  traveller, — viz.,  a  conviction  that  they  contain  a  general 
truth  in  relation  to  the  characters  both  of  God  and  of  man ; 
and  that  therefore  the  Apostles  must  either  have  witnessed 
them,  as  they  assert,  or  they  must  have  been  the  most  mar- 


*t.  32.  REMARKS  ON  THE  INTERNAL  EVIDENCE.        25 

vellous  philosophers  that  the  world  ever  saw.  Their  system 
is  true  in  the  nature  of  things,  even  were  they  proved  to 
be  impostors. 

"This  theory  of  internal  evidence,  though  founded  on  ana- 
logy, is  yet  essentially  different  in  almost  all  respects  from 
that  view  of  the  subject  which  Bishop  Butler  has  given,  in 
his  most  valuable  and  philosophical  work  on  the  Analogy  of 
Natural  and  Bevealed  Religion.  His  design  was  to  answer 
objections  against  revealed  religion,  arising  out  of  the  diffi- 
culties connected  with  many  of  its  doctrines,  by  showing 
that  precisely  the  same  difficulties  occur  in  natural  religion 
and  in  the  ordinary  course  of  providence.  This  argument 
converts  even  the  difficulties  of  revelation  into  evidences  of 
its  genuineness,  because  it  employs  them  to  establish  the 
identity  of  the  Author  of  Revelation  and  the  Author  of 
Nature.  My  object  is  quite  different.  I  mean  to  show 
that  there  is  an  intelligible  and  necessary  connection  be- 
tween the  doctrinal  facts  of  revelation  and  the  character  of 
God  (as  deduced  from  natural  religion),  in  the  same  way 
as  there  is  an  intelligible  and  necessary  connection  between 
the  character  of  a  man  and  his  most  characteristic  actions ; 
and  further,  that  the  belief  of  these  doctrinal  facts  has  an 
intelligible  and  necessary  tendency  to  produce  the  Chris- 
tian character,  in  the  same  way  that  the  belief  of  danger 
has  an  intelligible  and  necessary  tendency  to  produce  fear. 
"  .  .  .  The  doctrine  of  the  atonement  through  Jesus 
Christ,  which  is  the  corner-stone  of  Christianity,  and  to 
which  all  the  other  doctrines  of  revelation  are  subservient, 
has  had  to  encounter  the  misapprehension  of  the  under- 
standing as  well  as  the  pride  of  the  heart.  ...  It  has 
been  sometimes  so  incautiously  stated,  as  to  give  ground  to 
cavillers  for  the  charge  that  the  Christian  scheme  repre- 
sents God's  attribute  of  justice  as  utterly  at  variance  with 
every  moral  principle.     The  allegation  has  assumed  a  form 


26  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 

somewhat  resembling  this,  '  That  according  to  Christianity, 
God  indeed  apportions  to  every  instance  and  degree  of 
transgression  its  proper  punishment;  but  that,  while  he 
rigidly  exacts  this  punishment,  he  is  not  much  concerned 
whether  the  person  who  pays  it  be  the  real  criminal  or  an 
innocent  being,  provided  only  that  it  is  a  full  equivalent ; 
nay,  that  he  is  under  a  strange  necessity  to  cancel  guilt 
whenever  this  equivalent  of  punishment  is  tendered  to  him 
by  whatever  hand.'  This  perversion  has  arisen  from  the 
habit  amongst  some  writers  on  religion  of  pressing  too  far 
the  analogy  between  a  crime  and  a  pecuniary  debt.  It  is 
not  surprising  that  any  one  who  entertains  such  a  view  of 
the  subject  should  reject  Christianity  as  a  revelation  of  the 
God  of  holiness  and  goodness.  But  this  is  not  the  view 
given  in  the  Bible." 

Professor  Noah  Porter,  of  Yale  College  in  the  United 
States,  when  in  Scotland  in  1866,  addressed  a  note  to  Mr. 
Erskine,  from  which  the  following  is  an  extract : — 

"  Dear  Sir, — Excuse  the  liberty  taken  by  an  entire 
stranger,  of  whom  you  have  never  heard,  and  who  is  from  a 
distant  land.  I  have  been  in  Scotland  twice,  once  in  1853, 
and  once  about  a  week  since.  In  both  instances  I  have 
inquired  respecting  yourself  and  your  writings,  but  have 
not  been  able  to  learn  those  particulars  which  something 
more  than  curiosity  excited  me  to  wish  to  know.  If  it  had 
been  possible  I  would  have  sought  to  see  you,  but  I  was 
prevented  from  so  doing  by  circumstances  which  I  could 
not  control. 

"  I  wished  to  say  to  you  that  your  little  work  on  the 
Internal  Evidence  of  the  Christian  Keligion  has  been  in 
America  a  work  highly  esteemed  and  of  potent  theologi- 
cal influence.  My  father,  who  has  been  the  pastor  of  one 
flock  for  nearly  sixty  years,  once  said  to  me  that  that  book 
had  done  more  than  any  single  book  of  his  time  to  give 


LETTERS  ON  THE  INTERNAL  EVIDENCE. 


character  to  the  new  phase  of  theology  in  New  England, 
which  began  about  1820,  and  in  which  Dr.  N.  W.  Taylor, 
Dr.  L.  Beecher,  Dr.  Moses  Stuart,  and  many  others,  were 
prominently  concerned. 

"  This  new  theology  pervaded  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
and  eventually  led  to  its  disruption  into  two  bodies,  the  so- 
called  Old  and  New  School  bodies,  in  1836  or  1837.  The 
volume  still  is  esteemed  very  highly  for  its  argument  and 
its  just  discrimination  between  the  theology  of  the  schools 
and  the  theology  of  the  Scriptures.  Your  later  writings 
were  not  received  with  such  general  favour,  but  candid  and 
friendly  critics  understood  how  you  were  led  to  adopt  the 
views  asserted  in  them,  by  the  extreme  and  cast-iron 
rigidness  of  the  Scotch  theology." 

M.  Vinet,  in  a  letter  to  his  friend  M.  Leresche,  of 
date  19th  December  1823,  referring  to  the  work  on  the 
"  Internal  Evidence,"  says  : — 

"  J'ai  lu  en  entier,  avec  un  plaisir  bien  pur,  le  livre 
d'Erskine ;  je  compte  bien  le  relire.  Tu  as  raison,  la 
m^thode  y  manque.  Mais  quelle  simplicity  !  quelle  con- 
viction !  quelle  vraie  chaleur !  quels  apercus  nouveaux  et 
inte>essants !  La  qualite  de  lai'que  de  l'auteur  a  singuliere- 
ment  contribue  au  plaisir  que  m'a  fait  ce  livre ;  elle  lui 
donne  meme  un  me>ite  et  un  caractere  particuliers.  Si  je 
ne  haissais  par  principe  ces  expressions  :  '  Je  suis  d'Apollos 
et  de  Cephas,'  je  me  laisserais  aller  volontiers  a  dire  :  Je 
suis  d'Erskine.  II  n'enveloppe  pas  l'Evangile  de  t^nebres  ; 
il  nous  fait  bien  sentir  que  si  Ton  ne  peut  concevoir  le 
comment  des  mysteres  de  la  religion,  le  pourquoi  est  par- 
faitement  accessible  a  notre  raison,  qu'il  doit  l'etre,  et  qu'il 
n'y  a  point  de  vraie  foi  sans  cela.  L'ceuvre  de  la  redemption 
est  bien  developpte  d'apres  ce  principe ;  1' operation  du 
Saint-Esprit  egalement  bien  pr^sentde,  non  pas  toutefois 
d'une  maniere  qui  puisse  plaire  a  tout  le  monde,  mais  ce 


28  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


n'est  pas  un  defaut.  En  un  mot,  ce  livre  me  parait,  sin- 
gulierement  propre  a  ouvrir  les  yeux  a  ces  malheureux 
hommes  du  monde,  qui  meprisent  ou  repoussent  l'Evangile 
parce  qu'ils  ne  le  connaissent  point  du  tout.  Dieu  veuille 
que  cet  ouvrage  produise  les  bons  effets  qu'a  desires  son 
auteur !  .  .  ."  l 

i  Alexandre  Vinet,  Histoire  de  sa  Vie  et  ses  Ouvrages,  par  E.  Rambert 
(troisieme  Edition ;  Lausanne,  1876),  tome  premiere,  p.  47. 


yET.  33.         LETTERS  FROM  THE  CONTINENT.  29 


CHAPTER   III. 

Letters  from  the  Continent  during  the  years  1822-24, 

On  the  4th  September  1821,  Captain  James  Paterson1 
was  married  to  David,  youngest  sister  of  Mr.  Erskine. 

Captain  Paterson  on  his  marriage  not  only  left  the  army, 
but  consented  to  take  up  his  residence  at  Linlathen.  This 
opened  the  way  for  Mr.  Erskine  carrying  out  a  long-cher- 
ished intention  of  visiting  and  making  a  prolonged  stay 
on  the  Continent. 

In  August  1822  he  left  London  and  crossed  over  to  the 
Netherlands.  The  autumn  months  were  given  to  North 
Germany,  the  mid-winter  months  to  Geneva.  The  spring 
of  1823  was  spent  in  Paris;  summer  saw  him  in  the 
south  of  France.  From  Bordeaux  he  passed  by  the  foot  of 
the  Pyrenees  and  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  through 
Montauban,  Toulouse,  Montpellier,  and  Nismes,  to  Pied- 
mont, and  thence  to  Geneva,  for  a  short  second  visit. 
Crossing  the  Alps  in  October,  and  lingering  for  a  few  weeks 
in  the  north  of  Italy,  he  proceeded  to  Rome,  where  he 
passed  the  winter  of  1823-24.  After  a  third  and  longer 
visit  to  Geneva  he  returned  to  Linlathen  in  the  summer 
of  1825. 

The  following  letters  belong  to  this  period  : — 

1  Youngest  son  of  Mr.  Paterson  of  Castle  Huntly. 


30  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1822. 


4.    TO  DR.  CHARLES  STUART.1 

Hamburg,  Id  Nov.  1822 
(my  brother's  birtliday). 

My  dear  Friend, — Your  letter  which  I  received  at 
Berlin  was  most  acceptable  to  me.  I  have  often  during 
my  journey  had  you  upon  my  mind,  and  would  have  given 
for  an  hour's  conversation  with  you  what  a  pilgrim  through 
the  desert  would  give  for  a  draught  of  water.  I  have,  how- 
ever, met  with  many  green  spots  through  the  desert ;  and 
springs  and  palm-trees,  and  many  hours  of  pleasing  and 
profitable  conversation  too,  though  not  with  you,  my  dear 
friend.  I  am  at  present  very  comfortably  situated.  My 
friends  are  Mr.  Merle  d'Aubigne,  of  whom  Mr.  Haldane 
will  tell  you.     He  is  an  estimable  man,  a  faithful  preacher, 

1  He  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  Regent  Murray,  and  stood  at  one 
time  third  in  succession  to  the  earldom.  In  earlier  life  he  entered  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  and  was  presented  to  the  parish  of  Cramond,  near 
Edinburgh.  Having  adopted  views  on  Church  Establishments  and  other 
subjects  which  he  considered  inconsistent  with  his  position  as  a  clergyman 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  he  resigned  his  charge,  studied  medicine,  and 
took  his  degree  as  a  physician.  A  lover  of  all  good  men,  he  was  a  pro- 
moter of  every  enterprise  which  had  for  its  object  the  diffusion  of  the 
gospel.  He  co-operated  with  Mr.  James  Haldane,  Mr.  Christopher  Ander- 
son, Dr.  M'Crie,  and  others,  in  the  formation  of  the  Gaelic  School  Society. 
At  the  first  annual  meeting  of  that  Society  after  Dr.  Stuart's  death,  Dr. 
M'Crie  in  moving  that  a  notice  of  that  event  should  be  entered  in  the 
records  of  the  Society,  said,  "  It  is  well  known  that  the  first  idea  of  a  dis- 
tinct Society  for  promoting  the  education  of  our  countrymen  in  the  High- 
lands and  Islands  originated  with  Dr.  Stuart.  ...  I  had  the  honour  and 
happiness  of  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  him  during  a  considerable 
number  of  years, — I  always  found  in  him  the  honourable  feelings  of  the 
gentleman,  the  refined  and  liberal  thinking  of  the  scholar,  and  the  un- 
affected and  humble  piety  of  the  Christian."  Dr.  Chalmers  shared  the 
sentiments  so  expressed.  "  I  feel  the  utmost  gratitude,"  he  said  to  Dr. 
Stuart  in  1814,  "for  the  friendly  attention  and  fatherly  care  I  have  ever 
experienced  at  your  hands."  As  the  relationships  were  closer,  deeper 
still  were  Mr.  Erskine's  attachment  and  gratitude,  of  which  the  reader 
will  find  a  most  touching  and  beautiful  expression  in  the  letter  dated 
14th  June  1826,  infra,  p.  54. 


jet.  34.  MRS.  STIRLING.  31 

and,  what  is  rare  here,  an  unprejudiced  and  unmystical 
student  of  the  Word  of  God.  Mr.  Mathews  is  the  pastor 
of  an  Independent  church  here.  At  Berlin,  I  made  the 
acquaintance  of  a  young  Professor  who  lectures  in  their 
University  on  theology,  and  on  the  books  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testament.  He  loves  the  truth,  and  will,  I  hope,  be 
more  and  more  enlightened  himself,  and  blessed  in  his 
instructions  to  others.  Our  ambassador  at  Berlin,  who 
takes  an  interest  in  all  these  things,  introduced  me  to  him. 
This  Professor,  whose  name  is  Tholuck,  is  a  self-taught 
linguist,  one  of  the  Murrays  and  Leydens.  I  should  like 
well  to  study  the  Oriental  languages  under  him.  My  want 
of  German  is  a  great  want,  and  a  great  stupidity  moreover, 
which  I  am  endeavouring  now  to  correct  as  fast  as  I  can. 

5.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  STIRLING. 

Dresden,  1th  Dec.  1822. 

My  dear  Christian, — At  Leipzig  we  went  over  the 
field  of  battle  in  which  about  900,000  men  were  engaged 
in  mortal  contest  for  five  days.  Mr.  Campe  (a  correspon- 
dent of  Mr.  Baumeister)  conducted  us  in  his  carriage.  He 
was  in  Leipzig  at  the  time,  and  saw  everything  which  could 
be  seen.  He  saw  Bonaparte  both  before  and  after  the 
action.  He  says  that  he  bore  his  fate  with  exceeding  calm- 
ness ;  that  there  was  not  the  slightest  appearance  of  agita- 
tion on  his  person  ;  and  he  was  standing  close  to  him  as  he 
mounted  his  horse  to  go  away,  four  hours  before  the  allied 
monarchs  met  in  the  town.  To-day  we  visited  the  picture- 
gallery  here,  which  is  one  of  the  richest  in  Europe.  One 
of  Raphael's  chefs-d'oeuvre,  a  Madonna,  the  most  lovely 
picture  I  ever  saw — several  beautiful  Titians  and  Annibale 
Carraccis  and  Carlo  Dolces. 

Oh  !  what  a  secure  peace  we  should  have  were  we  really 


32  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1822. 


resting  on  the  gospel ;  but  it  is  just  taken  by  the  by,  and 
then  it  produces  no  fruit  either  of  holiness  or  happiness. 
Let  us  set  to  it  in  earnest,  my  dear  sister,  for  nothing  else 
will  last.  Read  that  sermon  of  Leighton's  entitled  "  The 
Believer  a  Hero."  The  text  I  think  is,  "  He  shall  not  be 
afraid  of  evil  tidings  ;  his  heart  is  fixed,  trusting  in  the 
Lord."  I  used  to  read  that  sermon  very  often,  and  always 
with  pleasure.     I  wish  that  I  had  the  volume  with  me. 

6.    TO  DR.  CHALMERS. 

Hekrnhut,  12th  Dec.  1822. 
My  dear  Sir, — I  have  often  thought  of  you  since  we 
parted,  and  of  the  promise  which  I  made  to  you  of  writing, 
and  this  place  has  recalled  both  very  forcibly  to  my  recol- 
lection. We  have  often  conversed  about  Moravianism, 
and  here  I  am  in  the  metropolis  of  Moravianism.  Here  I 
am  an  eye-witness  of  the  order  and  tranquillity  and  gentle- 
ness and  cleanliness  of  Moravianism,  and  I  feel  convinced 
that  the  mere  date  at  the  top  of  my  page  will  make  this 
letter  acceptable  to  you.  Every  person  you  meet  in  the 
street  bows,  or  wishes  you  good-morning  or  good-night 
with  the  air  of  a  brother  or  a  sister.  There  is  a  repose  in 
every  face  and  in  every  action  that  you  see.  The  burial- 
o-round,  Goltes  acker  (God's  acre,  or  field),  is  a  most  inter- 
esting spot,  close  by  the  town,  which  seems  to  give  a  lesson 
of  silence  and  peace  to  the  whole  district.  There  may, 
however,  be  a  mannerism  in  all  this.  It  is  very  beautiful 
no  doubt,  but  surely  Christianity  was  never  intended  to 
interfere  with  the  natural  relations  of  life,  and  to  form 
men  into  artificial  communities,  but  rather  to  infuse  its 
own  character  and  life  into  those  relations  which  already 
existed.  Herrnhut  is  a  Christian  Lanark  or  Sparta — in 
some  measure  at  least. 


JET.  34. 


DR.   CHALMERS.  33 


I  have  seen  many  most  valuable  people  on  the  Continent. 
There  is  a  great  deal  of  cordiality  in  Germany,  and  I  have 
been  received  as  a  brother  by  many  of  them,  and  they  are 
all  anxious  to  furnish  me  with  further  introductions.  In 
general  I  find  the  Calvinistic  points  in  great  disrepute 
amongst  evangelical  Germans.  They  do  not  seem  to  un- 
derstand the  distinction  between  moral  and  natural  neces- 
sity, and  they  imagine  that  they  can  distinguish  between 
foreknowledge  and  predestination  in  God.  For  my  own 
part,  I  do  not  find  predestination  directly  in  the  Bible,  but 
I  could  no  more  separate  the  belief  of  predestination  from 
my  idea  of  God,  than  I  could  separate  the  conviction  of 
moral  responsibility  from  my  own  consciousness.  I  do 
not,  to  be  sure,  see  how  these  two  things  coincide,  but  I 
am  prepared  for  my  own  ignorance  on  these  points.  We  1 
know  things,  not  absolutely  as  they  are  in  themselves,  but 
relatively  as  they  are  to  us  and  to  our  practical  necessities.  | 
I  understand  both  these  things  as  they  relate  to  me,  but  I 
don't  see  their  relation  to  each  other,  because  I  don't  see 
them  as  they  are  absolutely.  Arminians  have  no  right  to 
attribute  reprobation  to  Calvinists,  and  Calvinists  have  no 
right  to  attribute  self-righteousness  to  Arminians.  Both 
inductions  may  be  just  in  metaphysics,  but  religion  is  not 
a  piece  of  metaphysics. 

I  find  the  distinction  of  objective  and  subjective  religion 
very  important.  Some  of  the  Christians  whom  I  have  seen 
here  make  their  religion  entirely  an  interior  thing,  i.e.  en- 
tirely subjective.  In  the  Bible  it  is  objective,  i.e.  it  consists 
of  the  history  of  God's  dealings  chiefly — but  objective  for 
the  purpose  of  producing  subjective  religion.  The  Mora- 
vians are  objective — they  don't  talk  of  faith,  but  of  the 
cross  and  the  glory  of  Christ. 

I  see  also  the  great  importance  of  stating  the  facts  of 
revelation   rather  than   the  dogmas    which   are    educible 

C 


34  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1823. 


from  these  forms.  This  also  the  Moravians  attend  to.  I 
desire  to  be  a  little  child.  I  have  seen  many  very  infan- 
tine characters,  not  affected  simplicity,  but  genuine  unin- 
tentionalness  and  humility,  with  excellent  understandings. 
They  are  not  so  practical  as  the  English,  but  they  are 
cleverer  in  thought.  I  have  formed  some  friendships,  which 
I  hope  will  last  for  ever.  There  is  a  Heubner  at  Wittenberg, 
a  most  delightful  man — he  lives  close  by  the  place  where 
Luther  studied,  and  where  the  Spirit  of  God  came  mightily 
upon  him  ;  a  Leonhardi  at  Dresden,  with  whom,  however, 
I  am  obliged  to  speak  in  Latin  ;  a  Merle  d'Aubigne"  at 
Hamburg,  the  descendant  of  the  friend  of  Henry  IV.  of 
France.  I  need  not  tell  you  names,  but  I  wish  you  knew 
the  persons.  My  dear  sir,  I  recommend  myself  and  my 
friend  Mr.  Stirling  to  your  prayers.  Mr.  S.  met  me  at 
Hamburg. — Yours  most  truly,  T.  Erskine. 

I  feel  afraid  of  Baxter's  Saints'  Rest.1  You  could  do  it 
well.  I  cannot  command  my  time  at  present.  A  letter  to 
Geneva,  poste  restante,  will  be  acceptable. 

7.    TO  DR.  CHARLES  STUART. 

Paris,  10th  March  1S23. 

My  dear,  dear  Fkiend, — I  fear  that  you  think  me  for- 
getful, but  I  have  had  cause.  My  companion  has  been  very 
unwell,  and  this  has  kept  me  in  such  a  state  of  anxiety  for 
some  months,  I  may  say,  that  I  have  been  able  to  do  little 
in  any  way.  Never  a  day  passes  in  which  I  do  not  think 
of  you  ;  and  in  which  I  do  not  commend  you  and  your  con- 
cerns to  the  Keeper  of  Israel. 

I  am  sorry  to  find  by  the  appearance  of  the  second  edi- 
tion of  my  Essay,2  that  a  letter  which  I  wrote  to  Mr.  Innes 

1  The  reference  here  is  to  the  Introductory  Essay  to  Baxter's  "Saints' 
Rest,"  which  he  supplied  for  Collins'  "Series  of  Select  Christian  Authors." 

2  The  "Essay  on  Faith,"  the  first  edition  of  which  had  been  published 


,et.  34-  DR.   CHARLES  STUART.  35 


from  Hamburg  lias  miscarried.  It  contained  a  division  into 
sections,  which  is  very  much  wanting,  and  many  additions, 
and  some  subtractions.  I  shall  set  about  it  again,  but  it 
is  not  so  fresh  to  me  as  it  was  then.  Will  you  tell  Mr. 
Waugh  to  remit  to  Mr.  Ewing,  for  his  Academy,  any  share 
of  the  profit  of  the  work  which  falls  to  me,  and  that  soon  ] 
I  have  met  here  with  Mr.  Noel,1  and  my  dear  friends  the 
Moneys,2  of  whom  I  have  spoken  to  you.  Their  Christian 
intercourse  has  been  a  great  comfort  to  me,  and  I  stood 
much  in  need  of  it.  Mrs.  Money  is  one  of  the  most  ami- 
able Christians  I  have  ever  seen.  Every  look,  and  word, 
and  action  savours  of  the  gospel.  There  is  a  Mr.  Wilder 
here,  of  whom  you  may  have  heard.  It  Avas  he  who  found 
out  the  Christian  people  in  the  mountains  near  Lyons,  and 
who  wrote  the  letters  about  them  which  appeared  in  many 
of  the  magazines.  He  is  very  useful  here.  Not  long  ago 
he  made  a  very  bold,  and  yet  wise  attack  on  the  supersti- 
tions which,  contrary  to  the  feelings  of  the  people,  have 
been  re-introduced  by  the  Jesuits  here.  There  was  a  pro- 
cession of  pilgrims  up  Calvary,  a  hill  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Paris.  This  had  existed  before  the  Revolution,  but  had 
been  abolished  by  Bonaparte,  along  with  all  useless  public 
ceremonies.  At  the  foot  of  this  hill  Mr.  W.  took  his 
stand  with  1500  tracts,  which  he  gave  to  the  pilgrims  as 
they  went  up,  and  which  they  received  with  great  readi- 
ness ;  and  next  day  these  pilgrims  recommended  him  to 
give  some  of  these  little  books  to  the  Jesuit  missionaries 
who  were  preaching  there,  for  that  they  recpiired  them  at 

the  preceding  year.  "  My  object  in  this  Essay  has  not  been  to  represent 
faith  as  a  difficult  or  perplexed  operation,  but  to  withdraw  the  attention 
from  the  act  of  believing,  and  to  fix  it  on  the  object  of  belief,  by  showing 
that  we  cannot  believe  any  moral  fact  without  entering  into  its  spirit,  and 
meaning,  and  importance." — P.  142. 

1  The  Honourable  and  Rev.  Gerard  Noel. 

2  W.  Money,  Esq.,  was  consul  at  Venice. 


36  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1823. 

least  as  much  as  anybody  else.  The  police  came  to  stop 
his  proceedings.  They  asked,  "  By  what  authority  doest 
thou  these  things  %  "  He  answered,  "  By  the  authority  of 
my  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  and  forced  a  New  Testament  on 
the  acceptance  of  the  officer,  who  was  so  taken  by  the  ready 
and  intrepid  manner  of  Mr.  W.,  that  he  could  not  refuse  it. 
He  has  meetings  at  his  house  every  Sunday  evening  for 
prayer  and  reading  the  Scriptures.1  I  have  made  the  ac- 
quaintance of  a  few  French.  Certainly  there  is  a  readi- 
ness in  this  country  to  receive  the  gospel,  but  the  political 
circumstances  are  very  unfavourable.  Additional  Bible 
Societies  are  prohibited.  How  little  do  the  Governments 
of  this  world  perceive  their  own  interests  in  relation  to  the 
gospel !  They  know  not  that  whoever  falls  on  that  stone 
shall  be  broken.  Mr.  Money  tells  me  that  Wilberforce 
thought  the  Essay  on  Faith  very  obscure.  I  think  that  its 
undivided  state  gives  it  that  character.  But  if  he  finds 
it  obscure,  how  many  must  there  be  who  will  find  it  so 
too! 

The  people  of  this  country  are  much  cleverer  than  our 
people,  but  they  seem  to  want  sense  very  much.  The  pro- 
ceedings of  their  Chambers  are  quite  absurd.  T.  E. 

8.    TO  DR.  CHARLES  STUART. 

Paris,  31st  March  1823. 
My  dear  Friend, — .  .  .  You  ask  me  on  what  ground 

1  Mr.  Wilder  writes  from  New  York  to  Mr.  Erskine  in  1851,  twenty- 
eight  years  after  they  had  met  in  Paris  :— "  I  need  not  say  that  I  shall  ever 
retain  the  liveliest  recollection  of  the  happy  hours  my  family  and  myself 
have  been  privileged  to  pass  in  your  agreeable  company,  nor  of  the  edifica- 
tion which  we  have  so  often,  with  numerous  Christian  friends,  derived  from 
your  able  expositions  of  the  Scriptures  under  our  roof  at  Paris.  Never 
shall  I  forget  the  manifestation  of  your  friendship  and  courtesy  to  wan  Is 
me  in  coming  expressly  from  Brussels  to  Paris  to  bid  me  and  my  family 
an  affectionate  farewell  at  the  period  of  our  departure  for  this  country,  nor 
of  the  delightful  whole  night  we  passed  together  conversing  of  the  things 
which  pertain  to  our  present,  future,  and  eternal  peace." 


jet.  34.  DR.  CHARLES  STUART.  37 

Malan  charged  me  with  Arminianism.  I  maintain  that 
guilt  in  man  always  supposed  power — that  there  could  be 
no  guilt  unless  there  existed  the  power  of  doing  or  abstain- 
ing. I  admit  that  no  man  ever  believes  or  obeys  except 
by  divine  teaching  and  divine  support.  But  I  affirm  that 
no  man  in  the  ordinary  exercise  of  his  faculties  lies  under 
any  natural  incapacity  of  believing  truth,  or  obeying  what 
is  just  and  reasonable,  or,  if  he  does  lie  under  any  such 
natural  incapacity,  that  it  is  impossible  to  suppose  that 
any  guilt  can  attach  to  him  in  consequence  of  unbelief  or 
disobedience.  This  doctrine  Malan  condemns,  that  is  to 
say,  he  condemns  it  in  words ;  for  I  am  persuaded  that 
neither  he  nor  any  one  else  can  differ  from  me  in  reality 
on  this  point.  I  love  Malan  •  there  is  something  most 
apostolical  in  his  whole  deportment,  and  his  mode  of 
instruction  I  think  in  general  very  scriptural.  His  minis- 
try has  been  much  honoured  by  God.  Wherever  he  goes 
an  impression  is  made.  I  think  his  fault  as  a  theologian 
is  that  he  is  too  fond  of  dialectical  language.  He  was 
quite  frank  and  most  affectionate  ;  but  our  conversation 
was  not  of  that  kind  which  could  be  very  profitable  to 
either  of  us,  for  we  were  arguing.  My  chief  society  here 
has  been  the  Money  family,  who  are  most  amiable.  They 
grow  upon  my  affections  very  much.  Yesterday  Mr.  Noel 
gave  us  two  excellent  discourses  on  the  resurrection  :  "  If 
ye  then  be  risen  with  Christ,"  etc.  We  had  a  meeting  of 
seventy-five  English  in  the  Hotel,  and  a  most  attentive 
audience  they  were.  In  case  there  should  be  a  demand 
for  a  new  edition  of  the  Essay  on  Faith,  I  wish  you  would 
send  me  any  hints  that  you  may  think  important.  I 
admire  Mr.  Kussell's   Letters  x  very  much.     I  am  getting 

1  Letters,  chiefly  Practical  and  Consolatory.  By  David  Russell,  Minister 
of  the  Gospel,  D\indee.  Mr.  Russell  was  minister  of  the  Independent 
Church  there.     These  letters  had  this  additional  interest  to  Mr.  Erskine, 


38  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1823. 

some  of  them  translated  for  France  and  Switzerland. 
Farewell,  my  dear  friend.  May  the  blessed  Spirit  of  peace 
dwell  in  you,  and  bestow  on  you  largely  the  earnest  of 
future  glory. — Yours  affectionately,  T.  Ekskine. 

9.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  STIRLING. 

Geneva,  9th  September  1823. 
My  dear  Christian, — .  .  .  This  day  had  been  fixed 
by  Mr.  Noel  and  me  for  an  expedition  to  Chamouni,  Mont 
Blanc,  and  the  glaciers ;  but  Mrs.  Noel  is  very  delicate, 
and  the  day  was  not  very  promising.  I  hope  to  make  it 
out  to-morrow,  either  with  them  or  alone.  The  Jeffreys, 
and  Cockburn,  and  Eichardson  are  here.  Harry1  looked 
so  like  home,  that  I  could  scarce  help  thinking  myself  in 
Charlotte  Square.  He  is  much  fatigued,  however,  and  has 
got  a  little  cold  in  crossing  the  Alps ;  but  don't  mention 
this,  for  it  might  give  needless  uneasiness  to  his  wife. 
Jeffrey  is  like  a  game-cock; — you  know  that  his  wife  is  a 
great  favourite  of  mine.  Her  father,  Mr.  Wilkes,  was  here 
with  them,  but  has  left  them.  He  was  much  attached  to 
our  James.  I  never  knew  anybody  who  was  acquainted 
with  James  without  loving  him.  There  was  a  mixture  of 
gentleness,  and  melancholy,  and  sensitiveness,  and  manli- 
ness, and  modesty,  and  intelligence,  and  truth  in  his  com- 
position, that  I  never  saw  except  in  himself. 

You  may  suppose  that  Mr.  Noel  is  a  great  comfort  here 

that  a  number  of  them  were  originally  addressed,  with  the  happiest  effect, 
to  one  of  his  sisters. 

1  "My  dear  Tom, — I  was  much  gratified  by  your  letter.  It  breathed  the 
affection  which  I  have  ever  received  from  you,  and  which  I  can  truly  say 
I  have  always  been  delighted  to  return.  We  have  been  more  separated 
throughout  life,  both  by  distance  and  by  pursuits,  than  at  earlier  periods 
I  thought  likely.  But  this  has  never  cooled  my  regard,  nor  yours.  I  do 
not  think  that  we  ever  had  a  word  of  personal  difference,  and  I  am  uncon- 
scious of  one  moment's  alienation,  throughout  an  acquaintance  not  far 
short  of  forty  years.  God  bless  you,  my  dear  Tom." — Extract  of  letter 
from  Lord  Cockburn  to  Mr.  Erskine,  dated  19th  October  1830. 


jet.  35-  MRS.  PA  TERSON.  39 


to  me.  Mrs.  Noel  is  certainly  much  better  than  she  has 
been  for  years.  My  host  and  hostess,  Mr.  and  Mme. 
Cramer,  are  two  excellent  kind  people,  who  make  their 
house  quite  a  home  to  me. 

This  is  a  lovely  land,— oh,  most  lovely !  My  dear 
sister,  I  hope  you  are  finding  happiness  and  strength  in 
Christianity,  and  that  you  know  what  it  is  to  be  sensible 
of  the  presence  of  God.  Religion  seems  to  me  to  consist 
in  that.  Give  my  love  to  your  husband,  and  to  Archibald, 
and  our  friends  at  Keir,  and  Linlathen  (write  them,  for  I 
have  not  written  for  some  time,  waiting  for  letters),  and 
Airth.  Is  the  bonny  Spat  looking  bonny  1  and  the  canal, 
and  the  Lago  Kelvino,1  and  the  pheasants,  and  what  not  1 

10.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  PATERSON. 

Milan,  10th  November  1823. 
My  dear  Italy,2 — How  does  that  northern  climate  suit 
your  sunny  constitution ;  and  how  does  the  stunted  vege- 
tation on  the  Tay  supply  the  want  of  the  luxuriant  life 
which  exults  and  wantons  in  every  leaf  and  every  flower 
in  this  fair  land  1  I  left  Geneva  and  its  much-loved  con- 
tents three  weeks  ago.  I  coasted  the  lake,  and  ascended 
the  Upper  Rhone,  and  arrived  at  the  Simplon  in  splendid 
weather.  I  slept  on  the  top,  and  admired,  I  cannot  tell 
you  how  much,  the  magnificence  of  the  descent.  Different 
small  streams  have  chosen  or  found  out  the  most  conveni- 
ent way  of  getting  down  the  mountain,  and  the  road  is 
guided  by  those  streams ;  but  our  small  scale  of  mountain 
scenery  can  give  you  no  idea  of  the  tremendous  chasms, 
and  overhanging  precipices,  and  desolate  ravines,  and  ever- 
lasting snows;  and  all  this  mixed  with  sweet  woodland 

1  Cadder  stood  on  the  banks  of  the  Kelvin,  which  supplied  this  garden- 
lake  with  water. 

2  A  name  given  to  her  among  the  family,  in  allusion  to  her  sunny 
temperament. 


40  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1823. 

scenery,  which,  when  I   passed,   showed   every  tint   that 
nature  owns. 

I  have  since  visited  the  Lakes  Maggiore  and  Como,  both 
lovely — how  lovely  !  You  know  the  beauty  of  the  foliage 
of  the  sweet  chestnuts ;  but  you  cannot  so  easily  conceive 
the  effect  of  a  continued  grove  of  them  of  every  fantastic 
and  venerable  shape,  upon  the  side  of  a  hill — intermediate 
spots  clothed  with  vines  trained  on  trees  in  the  Italian 
mode,  and  the  ground  strewed  with  the  leaves  and  fruit 
of  the  chestnut.  The  Maggiore  is  softer  in  its  character 
than  Como  ;  but  the  magnificent  range  of  the  Alps  behind 
perhaps  gives  it  more  variety.  The  Lake  of  Como  is 
bounded  by  its  two  sides  as  by  two  walls,  in  some  cases 
almost  perpendicular.  There  is  not  even  a  mule  road  on 
either  side !  And  on  one  side  the  steepness  of  the  rocks 
does  not  admit  even  of  a  footpath  the  whole  way,  or  even 
for  a  considerable  way.  But  you  see  olives,  and  vines,  and 
laurels,  and  chestnuts,  etc.,  in  overflowing  and  rich  redund- 
ance. The  gentlemen  who  inhabit  the  numerous  villas  on 
its  banks  keep  each  a  boat  instead  of  horses  and  carriages, 
which  could  not  come  there,  and  would  be  of  no  use  if  they 
could.  Some  of  these  villas  are  most  superb,  and  belong 
to  the  first  and  richest  nobility  of  the  north  of  Italy.  I 
saw  some  of  Canova's  finest  pieces  of  sculpture  in  one  of 
them;  and  I  saw  myrtles  in  blossom  at  the  same  time 
[ November]  in  a  hedge  before  the  house  !  Write  to  Christian 
that,  after  the  Lago  Kelvino,  I  do  not  believe  there  is  any- 
thing more  enchanting  than  Como. 

I  am  writing  over  anew  my  Essay  on  Faith  for  a  French 
translation.  I  hope  to  improve  it  much,  particularly  in  its 
arrangement. 

I  have  been  in  absolute  solitude  for  three  weeks.  I  don't 
know  even  the  name  of  a  creature  in  Milan.  But  I  am 
very  comfortable  and  happy  when  I  can  keep  near  God ; 


jet.  35.  MRS.  STIRLING.  41 

and  solitude  is  not  adverse  to  that,  though,  and  at  the 
same  time,  it  will  not  produce  it.  We  are  as  much  led 
away  by  our  own  imaginations  as  by  those  of  others.  The 
constant  sense  of  the  Divine  presence  is  the  important 
thing  and  the  delightful  thing,  and,  at  the  same  time,  won- 
derful to  say,  it  is  the  great  difficulty.  .  .  .  There  are  some 
very  fine  pictures  here  of  Guercino,  and  Carracci,  and 
Guido  Eeni,  and  Salvator,  and  one  Raphael,  and  Leonardo 
da  Vinci's  great  piece  of  the  Supper  much  defaced  (fresco) : 
his  colours  are  oil,  and  it  appears  that  water-colours  stand 
best  in  these  frescos.  The  Cathedral  is  immense — all 
white  marble — it  is  really  unutterable.  I  go  soon  to 
Genoa,  where  the  Noels  are  for  the  winter.  I  shall  stay 
there  a  week  or  two,  and  then  Florence.  You  may  write 
to  Florence.  .  .  .  Farewell.  The  Lord's  blessing  be  with 
you  all. 

11.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  STIRLING. 

Florence,  Feb.  1824. 

My  dear  Christian, — My  dear  sister,  what  a  strange 
world  it  is !  It  seems  most  extraordinary  to  myself  that 
I  can,  in  the  midst  of  such  a  world  of  death,  and  sin,  and 
sorrow,  find  enjoyment  in  marble  cut  into  certain  forms, 
and  colours  laid  on  canvas ;  and  yet  I  really  find  immense 
enjoyment  in  it — I  feel  almost  as  if  I  had  gotten  a  new 
sense. 

There  must  have  been  a  most  surpassing  genius  in  these 
old  Greek  sculptors.  It  is  not  merely  perfect  beauty  and 
perfect  grace  which  they  have  drawn  out  from  the  secret 
treasures  of  nature,  but  they  have  transmitted  to  us  their 
highest  thoughts  and  their  loveliest  sentiments,  all  fresh, 
and  living,  and  breathing  as  when  they  first  appeared  to 
their  own  inspired  souls,  in  a  form  that  cannot  be  mistaken, 
and  infinitely  more  eloquent  and  imposing  than  any  Ian- 


42  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1824. 

guage.  No  words  can  describe  the  Niobe,  that  union  of 
all  that  is  desolate  and  all  that  is  noble — the  desperation 
proceeding  from,  the  knowledge  that  her  enemies  were 
deities,  and  yet  that  heroism  which  never  even  glances  at 
her  own  personal  danger.  The  Venus  is  very  beautiful, 
though  I  prefer  the  Niobe  infinitely.  The  perfect  modesty 
of  the  Venus  is  at  least  equal  to  her  beauty ;  you  could 
really  scarcely  imagine  it  possible  that  an  unclothed  figure 
could  be  so  naturally  and  unaffectedly  modest.  There  are 
many  most  delightful  pictures  too,  several  very  fine  Raphaels 
and  Titians,  which  last  rise  daily  in  my  judgment  in  spite 
of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds.  I  cannot  sympathise  with  Sir 
Joshua  either,  in  his  admiration  for  Michael  Angelo.  .  .  . 
I  have  just  been  interrupted  by  a  visit  from  a  descendant 
of  Michael  Angelo,  who  has  asked  me  to  his  house  to  see 
some  of  the  remains  of  his  illustrious  ancestor.  Cumming 
Bruce  is  here,  whom  I  like  much ;  and  young  Mure  of  Cald- 
well, a  fine  young  man. — Yours  affectionately,         T.  E. 

12.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  STIRLING. 

Rome,  25th  February  1S24. 

My  dear  Christian, — It  is  never  from  forgetfulness, 
and  far  less  from  indifference,  that  my  letters  to  you  are 
unfrequent ;  for  there  is  no  person  in  the  world  that  I  like 
better,  or  think  oftener  of,  than  yourself;  but  really  the 
business  of  seeing  sights  is  a  full  occupation  of  time,  and  a 
most  fatiguing  occupation  too.  .   .  . 

This  place  from  which  I  write  is  just  a  mighty  monu- 
ment of  the  uncertainty  of  human  things — it  is  a  home  for 
the  afflicted  and  ruined  and  disappointed ;  for  here  they 
will  see  the  traces  of  a  heavier  affliction,  and  a  deeper  and 
more  widely  extended  ruin,  and  a  more  unlooked-for  blight 
than  their  own.  Here  they  do  not  see  the  tombs  of  indi- 
viduals, but  of  empires — they  walk  over  the  ashes  of  all 


jet.  35.  DR.   CHARLES  STUART.  43 

that  this  world  has  produced  of  mighty,  and  glorious,  and 
enduring,  of  cheerful,  and  prosperous ;  and  they  may  thus 
have  the  consolation  of  thinking  that,  when  they  suffer, 
they  only  share  the  common  inheritance  of  man.  Thank 
God,  we  have  better  and  more  solid  consolation  than  the 
mere  knowledge  that  we  have  the  whole  of  our  race,  past 
and  present,  as  our  companions  in  sorrow.  We  have 
learned  that  according  to  the  plans  of  Divine  wisdom,  sorrow 
is  the  seed  of  joy,  and  that  out  of  the  fragments  of  this 
life  a  higher  life  is  to  be  formed.  .  .  . 

The  Noels  have  gone  this  morning  for  Naples.  They 
pressed  me  very  hard  to  go  with  them,  but  I  want  to  see 
more  of  this  place,  and  to  get  more  into  its  spirit.  Rome 
is  not  a  place  to  see  in  company  with  others.  It  is  too 
solemn  and  overwhelming  in  its  principle  to  admit  ever  of 
being  felt  by  a  number  of  people  together.  Ten  people 
can  admire  a  column  or  a  statue  together  ;  but  ten  people 
cannot  look  together  into  the  abyss  of  past  time  and  glory 
and  genius.  It  is  like  looking  into  a  grave,  or  conversing 
with  a  departed  spirit.  I  cannot  tell  you  anything  which 
you  do  not  find  better  in  books ;  only  that  the  half  of  the 
truth  can  never  be  told  you  of  the  general  interest  of  the 
scene,  or  of  the  magnificence  of  St.  Peter's,  or  of  the  magic 
of  the  Apollo.  .  .  .  My  dear  Christian,  I  hope  Charles  is 
not  feeling  his  arm  troublesome  ;  if  he  does,  come  away, 
and  I  shall  be  your  cicerone.  It  would  be  an  immense 
delight  to  me  to  see  you,  and  I  know  that  both  you  and 
Charles  would  delight  in  it.  Take  a  lesson  in  Italian  now 
and  then  by  way  of  preparation.  Give  my  best  love  to 
all  friends,  especially  the  Laird  himsel'. — Yours  affec- 
tionately, T.  E. 

1  3.    TO  DR.  CHARLES  STUART. 

Rome,  19th  April  IS 2-1. 
My  dear  Friend, —  .  .  .  This  city  on  the  seven  hills 


44  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1824. 

is  really  a  wonderful  place.  It  is  full  of  history  aud  pro- 
phecy— full  both  of  the  past  and  the  future  :  and  the  reli- 
gious system  which  has  been  concocted  here  fills  up  the  sum 
of  its  marvels.  Yesterday  was  Easter  Day,  and  the  way 
of  celebrating  the  resurrection  of  our  Lord  which  has  been 
adopted  here,  is  to  illuminate  St.  Peter's  from  the  ground 
to  the  Cross  on  the  cupola,  and  to  set  off  artificial  fireworks 
from  St.  Angelo  !  This  was  the  work  of  the  evening,  and 
in  the  forenoon  the  Pope  gave  his  benediction  from  a  bal- 
cony in  the  Quirinal,  which  was  announced  to  those  who 
were  not  present  by  the  firing  of  cannon  !  My  astonish- 
ment is,  that  the  thing  goes  on,  for  all  the  people  seem  to 
regard  it  with  perfect  levity ;  they  like  it  merely  as  a 
spectacle,  and  surely  they  could  easily  have  the  same 
spectacle,  without  the  expense  and  load  of  the  system  to 
which  it  is  attached.  Assuredly  there  is  not  a  place  on 
the  earth  which  is  better  fitted  to  be  considered  as  the 
representative  of  human  nature  in  all  its  efforts,  and  espe- 
cially in  its  rebellion  against  Heaven ;  and  as  such  it  stands 
forth  in  Scripture.  There  we  see  it  set  up  as  the  mark  of 
the  denunciations  of  God.  It  is  the  great  theatre  on  which 
man  has  exhibited  his  powers,  and  his  weakness,  and  his 
corruption ;  he  has  endeavoured  to  do  everything  without 
God,  and  the  ruins  of  the  Forum  and  the  Palatine  tell  the 
success  ;  he  has  endeavoured  even  to  be  religious  without 
God,  and  that  experiment  I  should  think  is  drawing  to  its 
conclusion.  I  suppose  that  you  have  heard  by  this  time  of 
the  measures  which  have  been  taken  by  the  Government 
of  the  Canton  de  Vaud  against  the  Momiers  as  they  are 
called,  i.e.  against  real  religion.  The  common  people  are 
against  it,  i.e.  serious  religion  in  Switzerland,  which  is  not 
a  usual  thing  (although  the  Wesleys  found  the  same  thing, 
to  be  sure,  in  England),  and  the  Government,  leaning  upon 
this  feeling,  has  forbidden  all  meetings  for  religious  pur- 


^ET.  35. 


CAPTAIN  PA  TERSON:  45 


poses  amongst  the  Momiers,  under  severe  penalties.  I 
have  a  great  mind  to  send  the  narrative  which  Empeytaz 
(a  friend  of  Lady  Carnegie)  has  written  to  me  of  the  trans- 
actions to  Mr.  F.  Gordon,  in  case  any  statement  on  the  sub- 
ject should  he  required.  But  it  is  not  wise  nor  safe  to  raise 
much  cry  in  England  about  these  matters, — it  only  exas- 
perates the  Continental  Governments,  without  effecting 
any  change.  So  if  I  send,  there  must  be  no  use  of  that 
sort  made  of  it.  .  .  .—Yours  affectionately, 

T.  Erskine. 

14.    TO  HIS  BROTHER-IN-LAW,  CAPTAIN  PATERSON. 

Rome,  llth  May  1S24. 

My  dear  James, — I  have  just  received  the  intelligence 
of  dear  Ralph's  death.1  I  desire  to  return  thanks  for  the 
mercy  of  God  towards  him,  in  giving  him  a  clear  sense  of 
the  necessity  and  the  sufficiency  of  the  great  atonement. 
I  don't  think  that  there  was  one  of  my  relations  to  whom 
I  felt  so  much  brotherliness  as  to  Ralph  ;  he  had  a  noble 
heart  and  a  gentle  heart,  and  self  seemed  to  have  little  to 
do  in  his  composition.  It  is  a  heart-breaking  blow  to  his 
family.  Oh  may  it  be  blessed  to  them,  and,  if  their  hearts 
are  broken,  may  they  have  new  hearts  given  them  from 
above  !  It  is  a  purpose  of  love,  however,  we  know — Ralph 
and  Jeannie,  the  eldest  and  the  youngest.  The  root  must 
shake,  whilst  the  branches  fall.  Mr.  Dundas  will  feel  it 
strongly. 

I  am  going  to  Naples  to-morrow  :  I  wish  to  see  the  place 
where  my  father  died.  There  is  a  poor  Swiss  here  who  is 
dying.  I  leave  my  servant  here  to  look  after  him  when  I 
am  at  Naples,  and  if  he  is  alive  when  I  return,  I  must  stay 
with  him.  He  has  no  earthly  friend  here  but  me.  I  shall 
write  to  my  mother  at  Harrogate  from  Naples.     Give  my 

1  His  cousin,  Ralph  Dundas,  eldest  son  of  James  Duudas  of  Oclitertyre. 


46  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1824. 

love  to  Davie  and  the  children,  and  to  the  Dundas  family 
most  particularly  and  affectionately.  I  wish  we  were  all 
fairly  grafted  into  the  true  Vine,  and  then,  come  life  or 
come  death,  all  would  be  well.  Farewell,  my  dear  brother. 
The  sight  of  your  hand  from  Paris  gave  me  a  start ;  it  is 
a  hand  I  should  like  well  to  clasp  again.  .  .  . 

I  intend  to  be  back  at  Geneva  by  the  end  of  June  ; 
but  that  will  depend  on  the  life  of  the  Swiss.  He  is  a 
thorough  Christian. — Yours,  etc.,  T.  Erskine. 

15.    TO   DE.  CHARLES   STUART. 

Rome,  27th  June  1824. 
My  dear  Friend, — .  .  .  I  am  preparing  to  leave  this 
capital  of  the  world  now,  and  to  return  to  Geneva.  This 
is  a  place  for  collecting  the  materials  of  future  thought 
and  feeling  ;  and  I  do  not  think  that  in  this  respect  I  have 
altogether  lost  my  time  here.  Providence  has  called  me 
to  be  the  witness  of  a  most  interesting  scene  lately — the 
death  of  a  poor  Swiss  artist,  a  peaceful  and  faithful  follower 
of  Christ.  His  lungs  had  been  attacked  some  years  ago. 
In  this  situation  it  pleased  God  to  make  him  acquainted 
with  that  truth  which  comforts  the  mourner  and  strengthens 
the  faint,  through  the  instrumentality  of  a  very  worthy 
man,  a  Mr.  Perrot,  whom  I  know.  Since  that  time  he  ha? 
been  sustained,  and  enabled  to  walk  on  in  the  narrow  path. 
Last  autumn,  when  Mr.  Noel  left  Geneva  for  Italy,  he  was 
requested  by  Mr.  Perrot  to  take  this  poor  sick  artist  along 
with  him,  which  he  did  as  far  as  Florence,  from  whence  he 
proceeded  alone  to  Rome.  The  winter  was  very  severe, 
and  the  health  of  this  poor  man  (I  should  not  say  poor,  for 
he  is  rich)  evidently  declined  apace.  He  was  without 
friends,  without  comforts,  without  sleep,  for  whenever  he 
lay  down  the  cough  seized  him,  and  in  a  country  whose 
language  was  strange  to  him  ;  but  he  was  not  without  God, 


jet.  35.  DR.   CHARLES  STUART.  47 


and  God  was  to  him  friends,  and  comfort,  and  rest,  and 

home.     I  arrived  here  about  the  middle  of  February,  and 

got  acquainted  with  him,  and  saw  him  occasionally.     He 

could  go  about  and  walk  a  little  then,  and  he  used  to  come 

and  sit  with  Mr.  Noel  and  me  from  time  to  time  ;  and  we 

always  found  him  most  edifying,  as  far  as  his  extreme 

modesty   would  permit    him    to    communicate  to  us  his 

Christian  experience.     For  long  he  had  been  in  the  habit 

of  living  much  alone,  and  of  speaking  more  to  God  than  to 

man  ;  and  this  high  intercourse  had  left  its  traces  on  him 

—  its  blessed  traces  of  holiness  and  peace.     As  the  spring 

advanced  he  got  worse  and  weaker,  and  in  April  he  became 

unable  to  leave  his  room.     I  saw  a  great  deal  of  him  then. 

I  was  particularly  struck  with  the  exceeding  seriousness 

of  his  mind.     He  was  much  afraid  of  thinking  or  speaking 

of  religion  in  an  unfit  or   unawakened  state  of  mind,  or 

rather,  I  should  say, without  intense  feeling.    His  conscience 

went  so  far  on  this  matter  that  he  would  not  allow  me  to 

read  to  him,  unless  his  mind  could  come  to  the  stretch. 

He  was  afraid  of  dishonouring  God  by  not  giving  Him  the 

whole  effort  and  exertion  of  his  spirit.     He  used  to  tell 

me  that  his  sleepless  nights  Avere  delightful  opportunities 

of  communion  with  God.     The  joy  Avhich  filled  his  heart 

received  very  little  abatement  from  his  disease.     On  the 

day  before  his  death  he  told  me  that  he  had  had  moments 

that  day  which  he  could  not  express — "  des  moments  inex- 

jmmables."     You  who  are  in  health,  he  said,  can  scarcely 

conceive  the  manifestations  which  God  makes  to  His  people 

as  they  stand  on  the  brink  of  the  giave.     He  has  finished 

his   course,  and  kept  the  faith,  and  received  the   crown. 

My  dear  R.  D.  has  also,  I  rejoice  to  hear,  been  made  a 

bright  monument  of  the  grace  of  God.     Let  us  then  be  of 

good  courage  and  follow  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  of  fire,  as 

it  conducts  us  into  the  promised  land.     My  dear  friend  I 


48  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1824. 

long  to  see  you  again.  I  have  many  friends,  but  few  fathers. 
When  Mr.  W.  Erskine1  from  Bombay  arrives,  I  hope  that 
you  will  see  him.  I  am  sure  that  he  must  be  a  very  amiable 
and  a  very  able  man. — Yours  affectionately,  T.  E. 

1  6.    TO  HIS  SISTER   MRS.  STIRLING. 

Geneva,  22d  Sept.  1824. 
My  dear  Christian, — .  .  .  .  You  were  well  off  for 
weather  in  crossing  the  Simplon,  and  I  am  sure  that  you 
have  enjoyed  it  much,  and  that  you  are  satisfied  that  even 
Switzerland  cannot  show  anything  superior  to  it  in  sublim- 
ity. You  were  also  delighted  with  Baveno  ;  I  am  sure  you 
could  not  be  otherwise.  And  [I  am  sure]  that  you  have 
been  struck  with  the  appearance  of  rich  production  through 
Lombardy.  Virgil  calls  Italy  "  the  bounteous  mother  of 
men  and  fruits."  You  are  at  present  surrounded  by  the 
purple  vintage.  I  delight  in  that  exuberance  of  nature 
that  pours  itself  almost  unasked  over  these  sunny  hills, 
and  vales,  and  plains.  I  shall  direct  this  to  Florence. 
You  must  go  to  the  Gallery  about  twelve,  when  one  of  the 
custodes,  who  are  gentlemen,  and  do  not  receive  money, 
commences  the  round  of  all  the  camere  or  chambers.  The 
tribune,  in  which  the  chiefest  specimens,  both  of  sculpture 
and  painting,  are  assembled,  is  generally  open.  There  are 
the  Venus  de  Medici  and  a  beautiful  Apollo.  There  are 
several  Baphaels.  Now,  just  begin  and  study  Raphael. 
Remark  the  goodness,  and  the  worth,  and  the  piety  of  his 
faces,  separate  altogether  from  the  fine  art  and  execution. 
There  are  two  little  Madonnas,  or  rather  Holy  Families,  on 
the  left  hand  as  you  enter,  in  his  early  style,  with  blue 
landscape  behind  them.     Observe  the  face  of  the  young 

1  Sir  James  Mackintosh's  son-in-law,  author  of  the  "History  of  India 
under  the  two  first  Sovereigns  of  the  House  of  Taimur." 


^et.  35.  MRS.  STIRLING.  49 

Saviour  in  one  of  these.  The  St.  John  in  the  Desert  is 
very  striking.  Observe  Domenichino's  portrait  of  a  Car- 
dinal, very  like  Dr.  Chalmers,  I  think,  when  he  appears 
gruff,  in  which  predicament  you  perhaps  have  never  seen 
him.  In  the  Pitti,  hunt  Eaphael  without  remorse  or  shame. 
There  are  several  in  all  his  manners.  Observe  Ezekiel's 
Vision ;  what  a  colossal  and  imposing  strength  he  has  con- 
trived to  represent  in  that  small  compass  !  Madonna  della 
Seggiola — the  loveliest  head  I  ever  saw,  except  the  one 
at  Dresden.  The  St.  Mark  by  Fra  Bartolomeo  :  that  was 
a  great  painter ;  attend  to  him.  A  portrait  of  Hippolito 
de'  Medici,  by  Titian,  in  one  of  the  back  rooms,  over  the 
door — a  splendid  thing,  look  for  it.  Ask  for  the  room 
where  two  Salvator  Eosas  hang.  It  is  not  usually  shown, 
but  ask.  There  are  also  beautiful  Poussins  there.  Go  to 
the  church  of  Santa  Croce,  where  the  great  men  of  Florence 
are  buried — most  interesting.  Go  to  the  Annunciata  Vesti- 
bule to  see  the  frescos  of  Andrea  del  Sarto  and  his  scholars; 
he  was  a  great  painter  too.  Go  also  to  the  Santa  Maria 
Novella — curious  old  frescos.  There  is  an  Irish  padre 
named  Padre  Tomaso  (Father  Thomas),  who  likes  to  show 
the  English  the  sights  there.  You  may  ask  for  him  if  you 
are  curious  to  see  the  oldest  frescos.  Go  to  the  chapel  of 
the  Medici.  Observe  the  statues  of  that  family  by  Michael 
Angelo.  There  is  something  very  imposing  and  solemn  in 
those  two  statues — very  unlike  the  antique,  but  fully  giving 
the  idea  of  the  baronial  character  and  chivalry  of  the  mid- 
dle ages.  The  Church  of  the  Medici  itself  is  much  more 
rich  than  beautiful.  Admire  the  baptistery,  especially  the 
door  towards  the  Cathedral.  Admire  also  the  bridge  of 
Santa  Trinita,  which  is  most  beautiful  in  its  form.  Fare- 
well, my  dear  sister.  In  the  midst  of  all  that,  keep  near 
God.  Draw  nigh  unto  Him,  and  He  says  that  He  will 
draw  nigh  unto  us.   .  .  . 

D 


50  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKTNE.  1824. 


17.  TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  STIRLING. 

Geneve,  27th  Oct.  1824. 

My  dearly  beloved  Christian, — .  .  .  Do  you  find 
yourselves  at  home  now  in  Eome  ]  Have  you  got  the 
camere  of  Raphael  by  heart  1  Have  you  drunk  the  spirit  of 
the  Apollo  and  the  Mercury  (falsely  and  foully  degraded 
into  Antinous),  and  the  Laocoon  1  There  is  an  eternity 
in  all  these  things — a  vivacious  principle  of  beauty  and  of 
nobleness — which  knows  no  age.  And  the  Grand  Juno, 
and  the  Minerva  in  the  Braccio  Nuovo,  and  Thorwald- 
sen's  John  the  Baptist  and  his  hearers,  and  Christ  and  the 
Apostles.  But  I  always  haver  when  I  commence  on  these 
things,  and  they'll  trot  me  at  home  if  I  don't  take  care  of 
myself.  There  is  no  trotting  on  the  Continent.  I  hope 
you  go  to  the  Vatican  as  often  as  you  can,  and  that  you 
expand  your  spirit  in  St.  Peter's.  There  also,  there  is  an 
eternity — and  a  different  world  from  that  which  is  without, 
and  a  different  climate.  And  the  splendid  mosaics,  and  the 
tall  beckoning  silent  figures  of  the  saints  and  martyrs,  and 
the  light  and  the  air  which  play  so  freely  through  it. 
And  observe  how  beautifully  the  dome  rests  upon  the 
four  arches  !  There  is  a  Prophet  Isaiah,  by  Raphael,  in  St. 
Augustine.  Go  often  to  St.  Andrea  della  Valle,  and  taste 
Domenichino,  the  St.  John  especially.  I  hope  that  you  will 
enjoy  all  these  things  for  your  own  sake,  and  for  my  sake 
in  the  way  of  companionship  when  you  come  home — mais 
le  dtjeuner  est  servi.  The  Cramers  and  Vernets  inquire 
most  kindly  always  after  you. 

Try,  Christian,  and  connect  these  works  of  art  with  the 
religious  sentiment.  That  seems  to  me  the  great  secret  of 
taste  as  well  as  of  enjoyment.  God  is  the  source  of  beauty 
— in  Him  you  find  the  spring  and  fountain-head.  My 
dear  sister,  may  He  bless  you,  etc.  T.  E. 


;et.  36.  LETTERS  AT  HOME.  51 


CHAPTER  IV. 
Letters  at  Home,  1825-26. 

In  the  spring  of  1825  Mr.  Erskine  returned  to  Scotland, 
taking  up  his  headquarters  at  Linlathen,  where  his  "  mother 
and  sister  and  household  "  were — in  the  summer  months 
making  a  round  of  the  cousinhood,  the  Dundases,1  the 
Grahams,  the  Stirlings,  etc. ;  in  autumn  exchanging  visits 
with  Dr.  Chalmers,  now  resident  at  St.  Andrews ;  giving 
a  large  part  of  the  winter  to  his  sister  Mrs.  Stirling,  at 
C adder;  and  in  August  1826  leaving  Linlathen  again  for 
another  visit  to  the  Continent. 

The  following  letters  were  written  during  this  period  :— 

1  His  mother's  sister,  Elizabeth,  third  daughter  of  Mr.  Graham  of 
Airth,  had  married  James  Dundas,  Esq.,  of  Ochtertyre.  Throughout 
Mr.  Erskine's  life  at  College,  and  his  attendance  at  the  Parliament  House, 
the  two  families  lived  within  a  few  doors  of  each  other,  the  Erskines  in 
St.  David  Street,  the  Dundases  in  St.  Andrew  Square.  Their  intercourse 
was  as  affectionate  as  it  was  close  and  constant.  His  uncle's  hospitality 
and  his  aunt's  sparkling  wit  brought  to  the  supper  parties  in  St.  Andrew 
Square  many  distinguished  and  agreeable  visitors,  among  whom  the  young 
advocate  found  himself  at  home.  With  one  of  the  younger  sons  of  the 
family,  George,  Lord  Manor,  the  daily  intercourse  of  earlier  years  was  in 
later  life  renewed,  to  Mr.  Erskine's  special  gratification.  One  only  of 
the  large  family  of  the  Dundases  now  survives,  Mrs.  J.  Stirling  of  Glen- 
tyan,  of  whom  Mr.  Erskine  was  wont  to  say  that  he  could  not  remember 
the  time  when  he  did  not  love  her. 


52  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1825. 

18.    TO  MADAME  VERNET. 

Wh  June  1825. 
My  dear  Friend, — Though  I  feel  that  the  voice  of 
human  consolation  is  absolutely  nothing  in  a  grief  like 
yours,  yet  I  cannot  but  express  to  you  how  deeply  I  condole 
with  you,  and  how  earnestly  I  desire  for  you  that  He  who 
alone  can  comfort  may  comfort  you  and  your  mourning 
family,  and  sanctify  to  you  this  solemn  and  heartrending 
event.  "  Be  still  and  know  that  I  am  God."  Within  a 
month  God  has  taken  from  you  your  father  and  your  son, 
but  it  is  God — the  God  of  love,  the  God  who  so  loved  the 
world  as  to  give  His  only-begotten  Son  to  die  for  it.  Let 
your  wounded  spirit  rest  on  this.  Here  is  a  balm  for  the 
broken  heart.  Take  refuge  in  God.  Abide  in  Him. 
Trust  in  Him  and  you  shall  not  be  disappointed  or  con- 
founded. He  who  restored  to  life  the  son  of  the  widow  at 
Nain  (Luke  vii.)  was  standing  by  your  son  at  the  awful 
moment,  and  ordered  every  circumstance.  He  loved  your 
son  as  He  loved  the  son  of  that  widow,  and  if  it  were  good 
for  him  and  for  you,  would  restore  him  as  He  did  the  other. 
He  loved  your  son,  for  He  made  him  and  died  for  him,  and 
He  says  to  you  as  He  did  to  that  mourning  mother,  "  Weep 
not."  Oh,  what  a  word  is  that,  coming  from  the  heart  of 
omnipotent  love !  Oh,  may  He  graciously  speak  to  you 
Himself,  and  say,  "  Be  of  good  cheer,  it  is  I ;  be  not  afraid. 
Daughter,  be  of  good  cheer,  thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee." 
And  may  He  open  the  ears  of  your  heart,  that  you  may 
hear  His  voice  and  feel  the  sweetness  and  the  power  of 
His  consolation.  Trust  your  son  with  unhesitating  con- 
fidence in  the  hands  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  His  hands 
are  kind  and  tender  hands.  Your  affection  for  your  son 
is  only  a  faint  shadow  of  the  fatherly  love  of  God.  Leave, 
then,  all  your  anxieties  in  regard  to  him  with  God,  and 


XT.  36.  MADAME  VERNE  T.  53 


receive  this  event  as  an  invitation  to  yourself  and  your 
family  to  enter  into  a  closer  communion  with  Him.  I 
know  that  I  cannot  enter  fully  into  the  feelings  of  a  mother, 
but  I  am  persuaded  that  there  is  not  a  pang  the  heart  can 
endure  which  may  not,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  become  the 
seed  of  holiness  and  happiness.  Our  way  to  the  heavenly 
city  lies  through  a  wilderness,  through  a  vale  of  tears,  and 
our  Master  walked  this  road  before  us.  He  was  a  man 
of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief  whilst  on  earth,  and 
now  He  reigns  in  the  blessedness  of  God.  This  double 
inheritance  He  leaves  to  His  people  :  "  If  we  suffer  with 
him,  we  shall  also  reign  with  him." 

Oh,  my  dear  friend,  my  heart  bleeds  for  you,  although  I 
know  that  all  things  work  together  for  good  to  those  who 
love  God.  And  your  husband — may  the  Holy  Spirit,  the 
Comforter,  show  to  his  soul  the  unspeakable  love  of 
Christ,  and  turn  his  natural  sorrow  into  spiritual  joy. 
And  your  other  children,  may  they  all  seek  and  find  a 
brother  in  their  Saviour.  God's  end  in  afflicting  is  to 
draw  us  to  Himself  and  to  make  us  partakers  of  His  holi- 
ness (Heb.  xii.),  to  show  us  the  vanity  and  insufficiency  of 
created  things,  and  thus  to  lead  us  to  choose  Himself  for 
our  portion.  Nothing  can  separate  us  from  His  love. 
Oh,  precious  words !  Let,  then,  this  love  be  the  great 
desire  and  perpetual  prayer  of  our  souls.  Let  the  language 
of  our  heart  be,  "  Whom  have  we  in  heaven  but  Thee  1  and 
there  is  none  upon  earth  that  we  desire  beside  Thee." 

"  Give  what  Thou  canst ;   without  Thee  we  are  poor, 
And  with  Thee  rich,  take  what  Thou  wilt  away." 

God  is  all.  We  are  His.  He  ought  to  be  the  first  and 
the  last  in  our  hearts.  Let  Him  then  take  His  great 
power  and  reign  within  us.  This  alone  is  peace;  this 
alone  is  heaven.     I  beg  to  be  remembered  by  you  all  as  a 


54  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1826. 

friend  who  is  willing  to  weep  with  you,  though  he  cannot 
comfort  you. 

19.    TO  MISS  STUART.1 

Cadder,  \Uh  June  1826. 

My  dear  Miss  Stuart, — I  wish  to  let  you  understand 
that  my  love  and  reverence  for  your  father  have  not  died 
with  him,  but  that  he  still  holds  his  place  in  my  affection 
and  in  my  gratitude.  I  have  to  bless  God  for  my  acquaint- 
ance with  him.  I  found  in  him  a  friend,  and  a  father,  and 
a  guide.  The  intercourse  which  I  had  with  him  was  a 
continual  incitement  to  me  in  the  search  after  God,  and  I 
regard  it  as  one  of  the  talents  of  which  I  have  to  give  in 
an  account ;  and  I  now  feel  how  negligent  I  was  in  the 
use  of  it.  I  did  not  know  a  human  being  on  this  earth  on 
whose  faithful  and  affectionate  friendship  I  more  confi- 
dently relied,  and  he  is  now  in  glory — in  the  second  part 
of  the  inheritance.  He  suffered  with  Christ  I  believe  here, 
and  now  I  feel  a  joyful  assurance  that  he  reigns  with  Him. 
His  soul  had  the  mark  of  God  upon  it.  The  desire  of  his 
soul  was  after  God,  and  his  business  was  to  understand  the 
will  and  word  of  God.  I  think  that  it  was  on  the  Monday 
after  he  was  taken  ill  that  he  said  to  me,  as  I  was  pressing 
his  hand  on  taking  leave,  "  /  hope  to  spend  an  eternity  with 
you."     Amen. 

20.    TO  M.  MERLE  D'aUBIGNE*. 

Linlathen,  Dundee,  26t?i  June  1826. 
My  dear  Friend  and  Brother, — Grace,  mercy,  and 
peace  be  unto  you  !  Perhaps  you  think  that  I  have  been 
ungrateful  and  forgetful  of  the  claims  of  friendship  with  re- 
gard to  you,  but  there  is  not  a  man  breathing  on  the  earth 
whom  I  love  more  than  you,  or  think  of  more  frequently. 
1  Daughter  of  Dr.  Charles  Stuart. 


jet.  37.  MERLE  D'AUBIGNE.  55 

Take  this  assurance  in  place  of  a  regularly  sustained 
epistolary  correspondence.  Well,  how  are  you  getting  on 
in  the  pilgrimage  %  Oh,  what  I  wish  is,  that  spiritual 
eye,  and  ear,  and  heart,  that  might  see,  and  hear,  and 
feel  God  in  everything — in  every  object  of  nature,  in  every 
event  of  time,  in  every  duty,  every  difficulty,  every  sorrow, 
every  joy.  Enoch  walked  with  God,  and  God  took  him. 
What  a  history  of  a  life  below,  and  a  removal  to  a  life 
above  !  Such  a  life  below  let  us  try  to  lead,  my  friend,  and 
let  us  daily  learn  to  count  all  things  but  loss  for  the  excel- 
lency of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus.  I  should  like  well 
to  be  with  you  for  a  little  while ;  it  is  a  pleasure  to  me  to 
feel  with  you,  and  to  think  with  you,  and  to  know  also 
that  you  have  a  pleasure  in  letting  your  spirit  walk  with 
mine.  It  is  possible  that  I  may  be  on  the  Continent  soon 
again,  and  you  will  be  one  of  my  attracting  points,  but  I 
shall  let  you  know  before,  and  arrange  with  you  our  times 
of  meeting.  I  know  not  what  may  have  been  your  lot 
since  I  parted  with  you,  whether  sorrowful  or  joyful,  but  I 
trust  that  it  has  been  accompanied  with  a  Father's  blessing 
to  your  soul.  As  I  look  upon  you  as  one  of  God's  children, 
I  may  presume  that  you  have  had  sorrow,  for  the  promise 
is,  "  In  the  world  ye  shall  have  tribulation ;  in  Me  ye  shall 
have  peace."  How  sweet  the  promise  is  !  How  consoling 
to  receive  tribulation  as  the  fulfilment  of  a  Father's  promise 
— as  the  private  cipher  agreed  on  between  the  Saviour  and 
the  saved  !  I  have  been  seeing  a  good  deal  of  sorrow 
lately,  and  I  have  myself  drunk  a  little  of  that  salutary 
cup — Ye  shall  drink  of  the  cup  that  /  drink  of.  Is  it  not 
a  high  privilege  to  partake  with  the  King  of  Righteousness 
and  the  King  of  Peace — the  friend  of  the  friendless,  my 
refuge,  my  portion1?  You  will  have  felt  with  the  poor 
Moneys,  both  in  their  sorrow  and  in  their  consolation  with 
which  our  gracious  Lord  has  visited  their  wounded  hearts. 


513  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1826. 


Remember  me  kindly  to  the  M —  family.  My  sister, 
whom  you  saw  at  Brussels,  and  Mr.  Stirling,  are  in  the 
same  house  with  me  at  present,  and  they  send  you  their 
kindest  regards.  You  gained  their  affections  very  much, 
and  I  liked  them  the  better  for  liking  you  so  well.  Fare- 
well, my  dear  friend.  Remember  me  before  the  throne 
where  the  answerer  of  prayer  sits,  and  ask  for  me  what  you 
feel  that  you  need  for  yourself — a  heart  devoted  singly  to 
God,  breathing  after  communion  with  Him,  and  consecrating 
all  its  movements  to  His  service.  When  you  write  to  your 
mother,  give  her  my  affectionate  regards. — Yours,  in  the 
bond  which  endures,  T.  Erskine. 

21.    TO  MRS.  MONTAGU. 

Linlathen,  Thursday,  13th  July  1826. 
My  dear  Mrs.  Montagu, —  .  .  .  Malan  has  been  a 
good  deal  in  Scotland.  I  daresay  he  has  been  a  good 
deal  disappointed  with  many  things  and  persons  that  he 
has  seen  here.  Religion  in  Scotland  is  too  much  a  thing 
of  science,  and  too  little  a  thing  of  personal  application 
and  interest.  His  reality  pleases  me  very  much ;  but  I 
cannot  go  along  with  his  continual  demand  of  assurance 
of  salvation  from  every  person  that  he  meets.  I  think 
that  he  confounds  two  things  which  are  distinct — pardon 
and  salvation.  Pardon  is  a  free  gift,  without  respect  of 
character  in  those  who  receive  it ;  salvation  respects  the 
character,  and  is  in  fact  only  another  name  for  sanctification ; 
it  arises  from  the  spiritual  understanding  and  belief  of  the 
pardon  revealed  to  the  soul  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  I  believe 
that  I  have  the  first,  viz.,  pardon,  for  I  read  that  the  blood 
of  Christ  cleanseth  from  all  sin ;  but  I  cannot  believe  that 
I  have  salvation  when  I  feel  the  evil  heart  of  unbelief 
opposing  the  will  of  God  within  me. 

Prayer  is  our  business  in  this  world — prayer  for  that 


&I.  37.  MISS  CHRISTIAN  ERSKINE.  57 

all-efficient  Spirit,  who  can  make,  and  w.ho  alone  can  make, 
all  things  new.  I  need  that  operation.  I  feel  that  I  can 
do  nothing. — Yours  affectionately,  T.  Erskine. 

22.    TO  MISS  CHRISTIAN  ERSKINE.1 

Linlathen,  9th  August  1826. 
My  dear  Cousin, — I  hope  you  don't  think  that  I  have 
forgotten  you  because  I  have  never  inquired  after  you  since 
I  left  you.  I  can  assure  you  that  it  is  not  with  me,  "  out 
of  sight  out  of  mind."  But  my  heart  has  been  sore  occu- 
pied with  many  things — with  parting  from  my  friends  and 
from  my  duties.  I  sometimes  question  whether  I  am  right, 
and  that  is  a  heavy  question  when  the  answer  is  not  per- 
fectly clear.  I  think  I  am  right,  but  yet  I  desert  a  post  which 
cannot  be  otherwise  filled.  I  trust  that  the  Good  Shep- 
herd will  lead  me,  and  make  me  to  hear  His  voice,  and 
follow  it.  My  heart  often  wanders  down  your  lane,  and 
enters  your  quiet  dwelling,  and  sits  down  with  you,  and 
escapes  into  the  past  and  the  future,  the  two  great  eter- 
nities between  which  the  present  stands  as  an  agitated 
point.  The  past  is  with  God,  and  the  future  is  with  God, 
and  so  also  is  the  present,  but  we  don't  feel  this  so  much. 
There  is  too  much  emotion  connected  with  the  present  to 
allow  us  to  see  it  as  it  really  is.  Eternity  is  to  my  mind 
just  the  same  thing  as  God,  and  when  I  lose  myself  in 
eternity,  I  feel  that  I  lose  myself  in  God.  That  is  a  good 
way  of  losing  ourselves,  is  it  not  1  That  loss  is  great  gain. 
I  remember  you  at  least  twice  a  day — in  connection  witli 
eternity,  and  in  connection  with  some  earthly  friends  whom 
you  love.     I  have  given  you  Dr.  Stuart's  place.     No,  I 

1  The  Rev.  Dr.  John  Erskine  had  nine  sons  and  five  daughters,  of  whom 
only  one  son  and  three  daughters  survived  him.  The  eldest  daughter, 
Mary,  was  Mrs.  Stuart  of  Dunearn — the  youngest,  Christian,  was  the 
cousin  to  whom  this  letter  was  addressed. 


58  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1826. 

cannot  say  that;  he  shall  keep  his  own  place  in  my  heart, 
though  he  wants  not  the  prayers  of  his  friends.  I  hope 
that  you  are  getting  on  pretty  well  in  spirit,  and,  if  it  he 
God's  will,  in  hody  also.  Do  you  hear  from  Kachel  occa- 
sionally 1  She  is  a  faithful  correspondent  and  a  faithful 
friend.  I  like  to  say  that  of  her  to  one  who  knows  how 
true  it  is.  How  is  Miss  Stuart  1  I  trust  that  she  is  reap- 
ing the  precious  fruits  of  affliction,  and  that  she  drinks 
more  of  the  Fountain  now  that  her  chief  cistern  is  broken. 
I  expect  to  be  in  town  in  about  a  week,  when  I  hope  to 
see  you  a  little  before  I  go  hence,  and  to  take  another  tack 
of  my  key,  and  another  turn  in  Heriot's  Green.  Farewell. 
Believe  me,  with  love  and  affection,  to  be  yours,      T.  E. 

23.  TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  STIRLING. 

Sept.  1S26. 
My  Kitty, —  ...  I  saw  Warwick  Castle  and  Kenil- 
worth,  and  a  very  beautiful  country  about  Wellsbourne. 
The  day  that  we  arrived  from  Hinckley  there  was  a  shower 
of  hail  that  broke  a  great  deal  of  the  glass  of  the  neigh- 
bourhood, killed  partridges  and  poultry,  and  cut  cucumbers 
in  two.  William  is  a  devoted  fox-hunter.  Lord  Mackenzie 
says  that  a  man  might  as  well  be  hanged  as  be  a  fox-hunter, 
for  he  is  utterly  lost  to  the  use  of  life.  Lord  M.  may  have 
a  right  to  speak,  for  he  is  useful ;  but  I  think  an  idle  tra- 
veller is  as  much  lost,  and  might  be  taken  up  and  hanged 
on  equally  good  grounds.  Write  to  me  to  Paris,  chez 
Lafitte  ;  I  shall  send  also  to  Poste  Restante,  of  course  ;  and 
let  me  know  your  plans  for  the  winter.  If  we  lived  nearer, 
we  would  be  mutual  helps.  I  hope  to  improve  my  absence 
at  present  by  cultivating  the  opportunity  of  intercourse 
with  God,  uninterrupted  by  the  creature;  I  desire  to 
know  what  that  life  is  which  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God 


^t.  37.  MISS  CHRISTIAN  ERSKINE.,  59 

— to  know  it  experimentally  as  my  own  life,  to  feel  Christ 
as  the  fountain-head  of  my  life,  a  fountain  out  of  the  reach 
of  danger.  That  is  the  only  safe  life,  is  it  not,  my  clear 
sister  ]  Oh,  let  us  not  be  half  Christians ;  I  have  been 
that.  Kitty,  I  hope  it  may  please  God  to  give  you  and 
me  to  know  what  flesh  and  blood  cannot  reveal  to  us. 
The  thought  of  you  is  to  me  always  a  cheering,  pleasing 
thought ;  you  are  a  part  of  all  my  expectations  of  worldly 
happiness.  Oh,  may  we  be  conducted  to  one  of  those 
mansions  !     Love  to  Charles  ;  I  love  him.  T.  E. 

24.  TO  MISS  CHRISTIAN  ERSKINE. 

London,  1th  September  1826. 

My  dear  Cousin, — I  must  pay  you  one  more  little 
visit  before  I  leave  the  country.  I  sleep,  or  more  properly 
spend,  this  night  on  board  the  steam-packet  for  Boulogne, 
and  then  the  sea  will  separate  between  me  and  you,  and 
much  of  what  is  dear  to  me  on  this  earth.  I  have  been 
detained  beyond  my  purposed  time  by  different  circum- 
stances. Indeed,  I  expected  to  have  been  in  Geneva  before 
now ;  but  it  is  always  soon  enough  to  leave  one's  country. 
London  is  to  me  at  present  a  desert.  I  have  hardly  a 
friend  in  town.  Mrs.  Eich,1  and  Christy,  and  Maria,  make 
up  my  account,  with  a  few  stragglers.  I  am  just  going  to 
try  Mrs.  Oliphant.  I  expect  to  meet  on  the  other  side  of 
the  water  with  the  Torphichens2  and  dear  Katherine  and 
Jane.3  The  Continent  had  something  of  the  home  feeling 
about  it  as  long  as  they  remained  there,  and  now  I  have 
friends  there — real  friends — friends  for  eternity.     But  the 

1  Daughter  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh. 

2  Mr.  Erskine's  cousin  Margaret,  second  daughter  of  John  Stirling,  Es<^ 
of  Kippendavie  and  Kippenross,  married  James  Sandilands,  tenth  Lord 
Torphichen. 

3  His  sister-indaw  and  cousin  Mrs.  James  Erskine,  and  her  sister  Mist- 
Jane  Stirling. 


60  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1826. 


home  feeling  is  wanting,  the  charm  of  blood-relation- 
ships grows  upon  me  very  much.  I  love  my  kindred,  and 
much  reason  have  I  to  thank  God  that  so  many  of  my 
kindred  according  to  the  flesh  belong  to  the  family  of 
heaven.  Christy  and  Maria,  I  am  glad  to  find,  like  Edin- 
burgh, and  will  probably  return  there  soon  to  reside.  You 
are  one  of  their  chief  points  of  attraction.  There  is  some- 
thing very  interesting  to  me  in  their  silent  unexpressed 
affection.  They  are  true  people,  but  their  loss  is  that  they 
have  never  had  anything  either  to  do  or  to  think  of.  They 
seem  to  be  without  excitement.  Would  you  prefer  having 
too  little  or  too  much  excitability  1 

Hold  me  in  your  memory  as  I  do  you,  near  and  dear. 
Give  my  kind  regards  to  Miss  Stuart,  whom  I  often  think 
of  as  her  dear  father's  representative.  When  and  where 
shall  we  meet  again1?  In  the  Lord,  and  in  the  Lord's 
time.  Kemember  me  kindly  to  your  brother  and  any 
friends.  I  could  send  friendly  words  to  your  garden,  and 
your  sun-dial,  and  your  elder-bush,  and  your  quiet  Lane.1 

1  Dr.  Erskine's  family  lived  in  Lauriston  Lane. 


jet.  37.         LETTERS  FROM  THE  CONTINENT.  01 


CHAPTER  V. 

Letters  from  the  Continent,  1826-27. 

25.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  PATERSON. 

Paris,  2d  October  1S26. 
My  dear  Davie, — Yesterday  was  your  birthday,  and 
it  was  also  Sunday,  and  I  thought  much  of  you  and  yours 
during  its  services.  For  the  first  time  in  my  life,  I  re- 
ceived the  sacrament  twice  on  one  day  :  first,  according  to 
the  Church  of  England,  at  Mr.  Way's  ;  and  again  in  the 
evening,  at  a  small  reunion  of  French  Protestants,  under 
Mr.  Olivier,  one  of  the  exiles  from  the  Canton  de  Vaud. 
This  last  service  was  very  simple  and  very  sweet.  It  was 
between  8  and  9  o'clock  at  night.  It  was  a  supper ;  the 
meeting  was  assembled  just  to  break  bread  and  pray. 
Olivier's  address  was  on  the  duty  of  purging  out  the  old 
leaven  when  we  keep  this  feast.  The  characteristic  of  all 
these  persecuted  Christians  is  reality,  and  oh,  reality  is 
everything  !  They  have  found  religion  to  be  a  thing  worth 
suffering  for,  they  have  found  it  a  support  under  suffering  ; 
and  they  speak  of  it  to  others,  not  as  of  a  logical  system, 
but  as  of  a  new  life,  a  heavenly  strength,  a  very  present  help 
in  trouble,  and  a  medicine  and  a  remedy  for  every  evil 
under  the  sun.  My  dear  Davie,  I  kneAv  that  you  would 
be  thinking  of  me,  and  thus  we  met  together.  May  the 
Lord  unite  us  in  the  bond  of  Christian  love,  and  faith,  and 
hope  !  .  .  .  I  read  the  53d  Psalm  this   morning,  and  I 


62  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1826. 

thought  how  many  fools  this  vain  world  holds.  I  felt  my 
heart  condemn  me  as  one  of  them.  .  .  . 

I  have  been  walking  in  the  Tuileries  with  Merle,  and 
talking  with  him  about  many  things.  You  remember  he 
had  written  to  me  about  a  proposal  that  he  should  be  the 
tutor  of  the  Prince  of  Orange's  family.  He  has  been  hesitat- 
ing about  accepting  it,  from  conscientious  motives ;  for  there 
is  another  governor,  and  he  fears  that  he  may  not  have 
full  liberty  in  giving  such  religious  instruction  as  he  may 
think  proper,  in  consequence  of  the  interference  and  opposi- 
tion of  this  man.  As  we  came  home,  we  met  Mr.  Lewis 
Way,  who  was  coming  on  horseback  to  call  on  me.  He  was 
looking  up  at  the  column  in  the  centre  of  the  place  Ven- 
dome,  and  he  repeated  a  tirade  of  thirty  or  forty  blank 
verses  on  the  subject,  composed  on  the  occasion ;  very  good 
indeed.  He  told  me  that  the  colossal  statue  of  Napoleon, 
which  was  made  to  stand  on  the  top  of  it,  was  now  at  the 
foot  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington's  staircase.  .  .  .  Farewell. 
I  am  going  to  my  table-d'hote. — Yours  affectionately. 

Oct.  Uh. — I  intend  to  set  out  for  Geneva  to-morrow. 

26.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

Coppet,  1st  November  1826. 
Dear  Cousin  Eachel, — It  is  near  midnight,  and  I 
set  off  to-morrow  morning  early  for  the  Simplon.  It  is 
not  therefore  with  the  idea  of  writing  a  long  letter  at 
present  that  I  sit  down  now,  but  with  the  view  of  begin- 
ning one,  which  may  bear  some  marks  of  my  journey  from 
this  to  Venice,  and  which  may  bear  testimony  to  you  of 
my  love  for  you,  whether  I  am  in  England,  or  Switzerland, 
or  Italy.  I  leave  several  real  friends  here — most  interest- 
ing, affectionate,  confidential  friends ;  and  there  are  in  fact 
as  many  of  them  as  might  satisfy  any  moderate  appetite  for 
friendship.     I  certainly  could  not  have  thought  it  possible 


mt.  38.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  63 


for  a  stranger  to  have  furnished  himself  with  such  an  assort- 
ment of  that  article  in  so  short  a  time.  This  house,  for 
one,  has  been  a  home  to  me,  and  the  family  have  been  my 
brothers  and  my  sister.  There  has  been  sorrow  here  also 
amongst  my  friends  !  indeed,  my  friends  have  a  sort  of 
luck  for  sorrow ;  but  good-night,  you  shall  have  a  little 
more  from  the  Simplon. 

Friday  night,  Brigue. — I  left  Coppet  on  Thursday  morn- 
ing.    There  are  very  few  people  in  the  world,  at  home  or 
abroad,  that  I  like  half  as  well  as  I  like  Madame  de  Broglie, 
there  is  such  a  truth  about  her,  such  a  superiority  to  every- 
thing that  is  little  and  low  in  character,  such  an  activity 
of  occupation  with  the  thoughts  and  interests  of  eternity, 
such  an  expansion  of  fine  and  high  mind  dedicated  to  Him 
from  whom  it  comes,  and  such  a  depth,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  a  naivett  of  sentiment.     And  I  have  received  from 
her  the  kindness  of  sisterly  friendship.     She,  and  her  hus- 
band, and  her  brother  were  up  to  bid  me  adieu  at  7  in  the 
morning.  .  .  .    You  have  often  heard  me  speak  of  Madame 
Vernet,1  whom  I  like  second  best  here.     I  wish  you  knew 
her.     She  has  all  the  warmth  and  energy  of  heart  that 
cousin  Annie  had — a  continual  spring-tide  of  strong  and 
generous  feeling.     She  always  puts  me  in  mind  of  the  well 
of  waters  springing  up  unto  everlasting  life.     I  have  con- 
versed many  hours  with  her,  and  I  never  felt  her  feeling 
flag  for  an  instant, — it  is  an  unfailing  stream  from  the 
fountain  above.     Her  intellect  is  far  from  being  of  the  first 
order,  naturally,  and  it  has  not  been  much  cultivated ;  but 
her  heart,  impregnated  by  religion,  is  full  of  genius.     I  have 
said  that  I  liked  her  second  best,  and  yet  were  I  permitted 
and  required  to  chauge  altogether  with  any  other  human 
being — character,  hopes,  feelings,  for  time  and  eternity — I 

1  One  of  the  Pictet  family,  mother-in-law  of  Diodati  and  of  the  Baron 

de  Stae'I. 


64  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1826. 

think  that  I  should  name  Madame  Vernet.  You  will  think 
it  curious  that  I  should  make  any  comparison  between  her 
and  cousin  Annie  when  I  tell  you  that  she  has  not  a  single 
particle  of  merriment  in  her  composition.  She  is  essentially 
serious.  You  remember  what  Bishop  Burnet  says  of  Leigh- 
ton,  that  he  had  known  him  twenty  years,  and  that  he  had 
never  all  that  time  known  him  to  say  a  word  or  do  an  ac- 
tion that  he  would  not  wish  to  have  been  the  last  word  or 
action  of  his  life.  I  have  not  known  Madame  Vernet 
twenty  years,  but  in  other  respects,  I  could  say  the  same 
thing  of  her.  I  arrived  here  this  morning  and  made  an 
attempt  to  get  up  the  mountain,  but  there  has  been  and  is 
a  heavy  fall  of  snow,  and  I  was  forced  back  again.  Sir  X. 
and  Lady  Mildmay  are  fellow-prisoners  with  me  here. 
We  dined  together  as  fellow-sufferers.  Oh  !  it  is  a  land  of 
beauty  this — of  beauty  that  thrills  the  heart.  I  can  weep 
at  will  whilst  I  look  at  it.  There  is  a  deep  melancholy  in 
the  highest  order  of  natural  beauty,  and  a  holiness.  It 
seems  to  recall  the  original  state  of  man,  and  to  reproach 
him,  and  yet  to  compassionate  him  for  having  lost  it.  .  .  . 
Saturday,  ith  November. — Still  at  Brigue.  The  moun- 
tain is  still  inaccessible,  but  the  snow  has  ceased  to  fall, 
and  the  sun  has  shown  himself.  I  have  been  walking  and 
wandering  at  this  place  in  the  midst  of  the  Alps.  I  went 
into  a  churchyard,  and  was  attracted  by  a  lighted  candle, 
at  the  end  of  a  low  long  vault.  I  found  that  the  candle, 
as  usual,  was  standing  before  a  crucifix ;  but  the  walls  of 
the  vault  on  each  side  were  lined  with  human  skulls,  piled 
one  above  another,  from  the  ground  to  the  roof.  It  is  a 
shocking  sight.  The  eyeless  holes  have  such  a  fixed  stare, 
and  the  jaws  grin  so  ghastly, — the  palace  of  the  soul,  with- 
out its  tenant.  My  friend  Gaussen,  at  Geneva,  holds  that 
the  spirit  is  in  a  state  of  total  insensibility  from  the  instant 
of  death  until  the  instant  of  the  general  resurrection.     The 


vet.  38.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  G5 

interval  between  death  and  judgment  is  in  this  way  abso- 
lutely annihilated  for  them.  Their  last  thought  in  this 
world  will  be  instantaneously  followed  by  the  sound  of  the 
last  trumpet.  Their  eye  has  just  before  death  rested  on 
the  face  of  a  friend  on  earth.  The  eye  is  closed,  and  instan- 
taneously opened  to  behold  the  Saviour  descend  from 
heaven  with  clouds  and  great  glory.  If  this  be  the  case 
(which,  however,  I  cannot  make  up  my  mind  to  entirely) 
when  we  look  on  the  spectacle  of  death,  it  is  striking  to 
reflect  that  our  accountable  existence  is  passing  during  a 
period  which  is  to  the  dead  absolutely  nothing,  and  that 
the  first  thought  which  will  stir  the  beings  to  whom  these 
trappings  once  belonged,  and  still  belong  perhaps,  is  to  be 
a  thought  excited  by  the  sight  of  Christ  coming  in  power. 
Sunday,  5  th. — Still  at  Brigue.  I  have  spent  this  day 
among  the  sanctities  of  nature — amongst  glens,  and  green 
glades,  and  water-falls,  and  towering  rocks,  and  autumnal 
colours,  and  fallen  leaves,  and  gushing  springs.  There  is 
something  delightful  in  coming  upon  a  fine  water-fall  by 
surprise,  as  it  were,  unconducted  to  it  even  by  a  footpath, 
so  that  you  may  almost  consider  yourself  as  the  discoverer 
of  it.  Many  such  I  saw  to-day  living  in  their  own  loveli- 
ness, unseen  and  unadmired.  God  made  them  and  He 
pronounced  them  good,  and  the  smile  of  His  approbation 
seems  still  to  dwell  upon  them,  unpolluted  and  unmixed 
with  the  stupid  gaze  of  man.  The  Ehone  (before  entering 
the  Lake  of  Geneva)  passes  by  this  place,  soon  after  issuing 
from  the  glacier;  and  as  he  hurries  along,  he  receives  supplies 
from  the  mountains  which  line  his  route.  Each  of  these 
supplies  forms  a  beautiful  glen,  branching  off,  higher  up, 
into  smaller  ones,  and  exhibiting  every  variety  of  beauty ; 
and  then  the  vegetation,  though  vastly  inferior  to  the  south 
side  of  the  mountain,  is  still  very  rich,  fine  sweet  chestnuts 
and  walnuts,  and  every  kind  of  bush  and  shrub.     1  read 

E 


66  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1826. 

several  psalms  in  these  little  sanctuaries.  Forty-second 
psalm,  "  deep  calleth  unto  deep,"  water-fall  calleth  to  water- 
fall. His  afflictions  followed  so  hard  one  upon  another,  that 
they  seemed  to  call  to  each  other.  Do  you  ask  for  a  heart 
which  pants  after  God,  which  thirsts  after  Him,  which 
renounces  every  other  dependence,  which  chooses  Him  for 
its  portion  1  .  .  . 

This  day  was  a  festival.  The  people  are  Roman  Catholics, 
and  whilst  I  was  out  on  my  travels,  and  in  the  very  midst  of 
all  the  adorations  of  nature,  I  came  across  a  procession,  con- 
sisting of  the  greater  part  of  the  population  of  this  neigh- 
bourhood (as  I  should  imagine),  clergy,  and  laity,  in  cowls, 
and  gowns,  and  coats  of  divers  colours,  carrying  the  host, 
and  banners,  and  flags  of  every  description.  Sometimes 
they  sung,  and  sometimes  they  knelt ;  and  ever  and  anon 
there  was  a  discharge  of  musketry,  and  then  a  peal  of 
church  bells.  It  is  a  woful  business.  Their  picturesque 
appearance  amongst  these  rocks  and  thickets  is  a  very 
poor  compensation  to  the  heart  for  the  delusion  out  of 
which  such  scenes  proceed,  and  which  is  strengthened  by 
them.  These  mummeries  are  so  little  like  intercourse 
with  the  God  of  holy  love,  and  that  is  our  God  and  our 
Father.  .  .  . 

Tuesday,  7  th,  Simplon. — I  remained  Monday  at  Brigue, 
and  had  a  delightful  walk.  I  thought  cousin  Manie  would 
have  been  enchanted  with  it,  but  it  requires  strength  to 
have  the  full  enjoyment  of  that  country — muscles  fit  for 
climbing,  and  practised  in  it.  The  roads  by  which  we 
must  penetrate  into  its  beauty  and  its  mystery  are  more 
like  chamois-paths  than  man-paths.  The  character  of 
sidventure  and  enterprise  that  belongs  to  these  walks  adds 
much  to  their  interest  in  my  estimation.  If  I  had  had 
paper  and  ability,  I  should  have  liked  to  have  taken  a  sketch 
of  a  most  curious  scene  which  I  came  upon — a  branch  of 


.£T.38.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  67 

the  Rhone  coming  out  of  an  immense  hole,  that  recalled 
to  me  both  the  crater  of  Vesuvius  and  the  Coliseum.  I 
need  not  attempt  to  describe  it,  but  it  is  worth  going  a 
good  way  to  see.  And  now  I  am  on  the  top  of  the  Simplun, 
surrounded  by  eternal  snows.  The  ascent  was  very  diffi- 
cult. The  road  was  very  poorly  cut  through  the  snow, 
rather  trodden  indeed  than  cut ;  and  even  that  barely  wide 
enough  for  one  carriage,  so  that  it  was  a  prodigious  embar- 
ras  the  meeting  with  other  carriages  coming  down.  I 
don't  believe  that  more  than  two  feet  of  snow  had  fallen,  but 
the  road  was  in  many  places  covered  with  avalanches  to  the 
depth  of  several  feet.  The  views  were  very  magnificent, 
as  you  may  suppose.  Our  wheels  were  taken  off,  and  we 
were  placed  on  traineaux  or  sledges,  which  slide  more  easily 
along  the  snow,  and  have  the  advantage  of  not  sinking. 
The are  still  my  fellow-travellers.  They  are  remark- 
ably civil,  but  I  have  been  accustomed  to  such  a  different 
style  of  society,  that  I  don't  find  them  at  all  satisfactory 
— they  know  nothing  of  God  or  eternity.  What  an  extra- 
ordinary, and  what  an  awful  thing  to  say  of  anyone  born  and 
educated  in  England,  the  land  of  Bibles — of  any  one  born  to 
die,  and  whose  happiness  through  eternity  depends  entirely 
on  the  nature  of  his  relation  with  God  !  Blessed  is  the  man 
whom  Thou  choosest,  0  Lord,  and  causest  to  approach 
unto  Thee.  Grant  to  us  that  we  may  approach  near  unto 
Thee,  that  we  may  dwell  in  the  secret  of  the  Most  High,  and 
abide  under  the  shadow  of  the  Almighty.  Good-night,  my 
dear,  dear  Rachel.  May  God  bless  you  and  repay  your 
kindness  to  me  a  hundred-fold  in  the  blessings  of  eternity. 
&th,  Wednesday. — I  hail  you  from  Italy.  I  am  now  at 
Baveno,  on  the  Lago  Maggiore.  I  have  been  here  twice 
before,  and  I  have  always  stopped  a  day  or  two.  The 
scenery  is  enchanting,  the  sky  without  a  cloud,  and  the 
moon  reflected  by  the  lake  and  the  distant  Alpine  snows. 


68  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1826. 

The  descent  from  the  Simplon,  on  the  Italian  side,  is  much 
more  striking  than  on  the  Swiss  side.  The  immense  masses 
of  rock,  thrown  together  and  piled  one  above  another, 
give  the  idea  of  the  ruins  of  a  world.  Nothing  of  man  is 
to  be  seen,  except  the  road  on  which  we  travel,  which  is, 
to  be  sure,  a  wonderful  work.  The  snow  lay  thick  till  near 
the  foot  of  the  mountain.  The  road  follows  the  course  of 
a  torrent  which  bursts  its  way  through  a  narrow  ravine,  in 
many  places  scarcely  wide  enough  to  admit  of  the  road. 
The  precipitous  rocks  on  each  side  are  the  very  image  of 
irresistible  strength.  Sometimes  they  rise  like  a  wall,  per- 
pendicularly for  many  hundred  feet,  and  sometimes  they 
assume  the  varied  shapes  of  ancient  battlements  and  barti- 
sans.  As  the  torrent  seldom  runs  many  hundred  yards 
perfectly  straight,  the  road  which  coasts  it  is  just  a  succes- 
sion of  glens  shut  in  at  both  ends.  The  dashing  of  the 
torrent  is  the  oDly  sound  which  interrupts  the  silence  of 
nature,  if,  indeed,  it  can  be  said  at  all  to  interrupt  it.  Well, 
I  am  on  the  south  side  of  the  Alps  once  more.  As  I  look 
at  them,  I  feel  that  they  rise  between  me  and  my  native 
land,  and  all  the  friends  that  I  have  in  the  world.  Their 
immense  forms,  covered  with  snow,  seem  to  ,forbid  all  inter- 
course ;  but  that  they  cannot  do,  nothing  but  God  can  do 
that.  I  am  perhaps  at  this  moment  thinking  of  the  same 
thing  with  you,  and  is  there  not  a  perpetual  spiritual  inter- 
course between  those  who  trust  in  the  same  Saviour,  who 
love  the  same  Father1?  Yes,  the  day  is  near  when  these 
"  mountains  shall  depart,  and  these  hills  be  removed ;  but 
my  kindness  shall  not  depart,  neither  shall  the  covenant 
of  my  peace  be  removed,  saith  the  Lord,  who  hath  mercy 
on  thee."  Good-night.  I  saw  the  star  of  evening  set  to- 
night, and  I  thought  of  Holywell,  where  last  I  looked  at 
it  with  you.     Do  you  remember] 

9th,  Thursday,  Baveno. — I  have  passed  the  greater  part 


iET.  38.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  69 

of  this  day  in  walking  about  this   beautiful  place.     The 

have  gone  on  to  Milan,  with  all  the  Brigue  party 

except  myself.  One  of  the  party  was  a  young  Bolognese 
officer,  who  had  been  with  Bonaparte  at  Moscow.  I  ad- 
mired the  perfect  simplicity  with  which  he  answered  any 
questions  that  were  put  to  him  on  the  subject.  It  is  a 
great  deal  for  a  man  not  to  be  a  coxcomb  in  such  circum- 
stances. My  dear  cousin,  do  you  remember  how  to  find 
out  the  north  polar  star  by  the  indication  of  the  two  stars 
in  the  Great  Bear  called  the  Pointers  %  I  told  you  once, 
and  I  have  just  now  been  looking  at  it,  and  thinking  of 
you  and  other  friends  in  the  north.  I  like  to  associate  my 
friends  with  particular  stars,  there  is  something  so  sweet, 
and  intimate,  and  confidential  in  a  star.  The  sun  and  the 
moon,  but  especially  the  sun,  are  too  universal  and  general 
for  particular  friendship ;  but  you  may  consider  a  star  as 
your  own.  The  moon  is  shining,  and  the  white  Alps,  by 
her  pale  light,  look  like  the  ghosts  of  past  ages  as  they 
mark  their  wild  and  livid  tracery  upon  the  deep  blue  of 
heaven.  I  would  call  them  "  their  high  mightinesses,"  were 
they  not  so  unlike  the  beau-ideal  of  a  Dutchman.  .  .  . 

Baveno,  10th,  Friday. — I  know  it  must  be  a  great  bore  to 
get  pages  filled  with  phrases  about  lakes,  and  mountains, 
and  blue  skies,  especially  if  one's  good-nature  makes  it  a 
matter  of  conscience  to  read  them.  What  a  blessing  it  is 
that  there  are  things  so  good  and  so  delightful  that  no  re- 
petition of  them  can  convert  them  into  bores  !  Were  there 
not  some  such  things,  eternity  would  be  but  a  melancholy 
prospect  for  us.  The  song  of  heaven  is  called  a  new  song, 
although  I  suppose  its  elements  must  always  be  the  same 
to  express  its  unwearying  nature.  The  affections  are  always 
new,  and,  to  say  the  truth,  whatever  weariness  my  descrip- 
tions of  the  aforesaid  mountains  may  produce  in  you,  the 
mountains  themselves,  and  the  blue  sky  into  which  they 


70  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1826. 

push  their  pointed  tops,  and  the  rising  sun,  and  the  setting 
sun,  and  the  shining  hosts  of  heaven,  and  the  lake  in  whose 
glassy  surface  all  these  reflect  themselves,  never  tire  me. 
Their  silence,  and  their  simplicity,  and  their  beauty  are 
ever  new  to  me  ;  there  is  no  over-excitement  in  them.     I 
went  to-day  to  see  a  little  lake  a  few  miles  from  this — il 
Lago  d'Orta.     It  is  very  beautiful,  as  everything  is  here. 
I  enjoy  the  solitude  of  these  expeditions  very  much.    I  am 
thoroughly  free.     As  I  rowed  past  a  large  chateau  in  a 
delicious  situation,  I  had  the  curiosity  to  ask  whose  it  was. 
The  boatman  told  me,  and  then  added,  la  contessa  £  morta 
sta  notte. — the   countess  died  tins  very  night!     Yes,  the 
great  spoiler  is  on  the  earth  following  the  steps  of  sin.     It 
is  a  lovely  place,  but  death  entered  it  last  night  and  carried 
away  his  prey.     It  was  a  solemn  night  for  her.     How  was 
she  prepared  ]    Did  she  know  Him,  whom  to  know  is  ever- 
lasting life  1     "  He  that  believeth  on  me,  though  he  were 
dead,  yet  shall  he  live,  and  he  that  liveth  and  believeth  on 
me  shall  never  die."     This  is  just  the  reality  after  which 
Poussin  painted  his  Arcadian  tomb  (of  which  I  have  sent 
you  the  engraving  by  Catherine).     My  heart  often  returns 
to  the  Ochil  hills,  and  your  grand  western  boundary  lighted 
up  by  the  setting  sun,  and  the  view  from  the  Castle,  and  the 
Links,  and  the  Meadows,  and  the  Pentlands  from  Heriot's 
Green.      And   oh!    how  memory   delights  to  revive  the 
various  feelings  of  earthly  or  heavenly  origin  which  have 
been  associated  with  these  sweet  scenes  !     But  the  night  is 
coming,  on  which  some  one  will  say  of  us  what  the  boat- 
man said  of  the  countess,  "  he— she  died  last  night."     My 
dear  friends,  may  our  God  grant  unto  us  that  we  may  find 
mercy  of  the  Lord  on  that  day  ! 

Como,  Sunday,  1 2th.— I  came  here  yesterday.  Though  the 
mountain  boundary  is  fine  through  the  whole  of  this  Alpine 
country,  yet  there  are  points  and  stretches  superior  to  the 


Jet.  38.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKIAE.  71 

rest,  and  certainly  I  saw  one  of  the  finest  yesterday  in 
passing  by  Varese,  between  the  Lago  Maggiore  and  the 
Lake  of  Como.  "  Thy  faithfulness  standeth  like  the  great 
mountains."  I  should  like  to  think  that  you  are  at  Mrs. 
Greig's  to-day,  and  hearing  (as  I  did  once  there),  "  In  me 
ye  shall  have  peace ; "  but  wherever  you  are,  I  hope  that 
your  spirit  may  be  touched  from  on  high,  and  that  your 
soul  may  be  fed  by  words  from  the  mouth  of  God. 

Venice,,  2d  January  1827. — It  is  a  real  pleasure  to  me  to 

write  to  you.  .  .  .  is  dead.      Oh  !  do  you  not  feel 

how  true  that  word  is,  "  Blessed  are  the  dead  that  die  in 
the  Lord."  I  don't  know  what  the  state  of  his  mind  was, 
but  I  have  a  hope  (which  I  would  not  willingly  think  con- 
trary to  the  revelation  of  mercy)  of  the  ultimate  salvation 
of  all.1  I  trust  that  He  who  came  to  bruise  the  serpent's 
head  will  not  cease  His  work  of  compassion  until  He  has 
expelled  the  fatal  poison  from  every  individual  of  our  race. 
I  humbly  think  that  the  promise  bears  this  wide  interpre- 
tation.    You  think  not,  I  know.     Well,  the  Judge  of  all 

the  earth  will  do  right.     The  Lord  reigneth.     has 

entered  the  invisible  world.  Oh  that  the  living  could 
realise  the  estimate  which  the  dead  form  of  things — things 
temporal  and  things  eternal.    My  mother  has  given  me  the 

particulars  of 's  last  days.     We  know  not  what  the 

Spirit  of  the  Creator  says  to  the  spirit  of  the  creature  at 
that  awful  time.  I  hope  for  the  departed  (I  hope  in  that 
unmeasured  love  which  gave  the  Saviour ;  in  fact,  my  soul 
refuses  to  believe  in  final  ruin  when  it  contemplates  the 
blood  of  Christ),  and  I  rejoice  for  the  weeping  friends  that 
the  last  scene  had  so  much  of  peace  and  promise  in  it.  I 
have  been  reading  over  your  letters  again,  and  I  cannot 
express  to  you  what  I  feel  for  your  affection.     May  God's 

1  One  of  the  earliest  expressions  of  a  hope  which  he  had  cherished  for 
some  years. 


72  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSK1NE.  1827. 


love  dwell  in  your  heart  and  give  you  peace  eternal.  .  .  . 
When  I  pray  for  my  friends,  I  always  pray  that  their 
prayers  for  me  may  be  heard.  .  .  .  What  is  the  honest 
language  of  your  heart  1  not  of  the  conscience,  but  of  the 
heart.     I  know  no  book  of  man's  composition  that  goes 
more  to  the  quick  than  Adam's  Private  Thoughts.     He  re- 
ceived the  testimony  of  the  Bible  concerning  the  depravity 
and  deceitfulness  of  his  own  heart,  and  he  took  part  with 
God  against  himself.     That  is  what  I  should  like  to  do  truly 
and  decidedly,  to  take  part  with  God  against  myself.   .  .  . 
Uh  January. — I  like  to  put  several  days  into  my  letters 
to  you,  that  you  may  better  understand  how  often  and 
how  dearly  I  think  of  you.     I  hope  my  friends  are  all 
well.     I  had  a  heavy,  superstitious  apprehension  darkening 
my  mind  yesterday.     All  things  are  in  my  Father's  hand. 
Oh  for  a  right  childlike  dependence  on  His  love !     I  have 
been  picture-hunting  to-day.     Almost  all  the  good  pictures 
which  were  in  the  hands  of  individuals  are  sold  out  of 
Venice.     And  at  this  very  time  there  is  a   negotiation 
going  forward  for  the  sale  of  the  Barberigo  collection,  the 
last  good  collection  of  genuine  Titians.     I  saw  to-day  the 
son  of  the  last  Doge,  the  same  who  abdicated  passively, 
and   thus   basely  terminated  a   high    career   of  fourteen 
centuries.     I  don't  like  the  character  of  the  old  Venetian 
state.     It  was  a  dark,  bloody,  selfish  aristocracy.     It  was 
a  government   of   spies  and  informers.     It   had    neither 
virtue  nor  generosity.     It  had  not  even  the  chivalry  that 
belonged  to  almost  all  other  aristocracies.     The  Doge  was 
nothing,  and  the  people  were  nothing,  the  council  of  ten 
was  all  in  all.     They  were  the  state  inquisitors,  they  spied 
upon  the  Doge,  they  spied  upon  the  people,  they  had  their 
midnight    examinations  and  consultations,  they  had   the 
bocca  di  Leone,  the  lion's  mouth,  for  receiving  calumnies, 
and  suspicions,  and  lies  of  every  sort,  and  woe  to  those  who 


jet.  38.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  73 

fell  under  their  jealousy  !  The  torture  was  always  ready 
to  force  confession  from  weakness,  and  agony  from  the 
brave.  And  then  there  was  the  Bridge  of  Sighs,  and  the 
deep  dungeons,  unvisited  by  a  single  ray  from  heaven, 
under  the  level  of  the  canals.  I  am  not  sorry  that  they 
are  gone ;  but  were  I  a  Venetian,  I  should  prefer  a  native 
despotism  to  a  stranger's.  Happy  those  who  are  citizens 
of  that  city  which  has  no  need  of  the  sun,  nor  of  the  moon, 
for  the  Lord  God  and  the  Lamb  are  the  light  thereof.  All 
human  governments  must  be  bad,  more  or  less,  until  men 
cease  to  be  bad.  But  you  know  that  I  am  a  lover  of  liberty 
in  its  largest  meaning. 

January  5. — There  are  many  fine  pictures  in  the  public 
buildings  and  churches.  There  are  four  or  five  magnificent 
Titians,  and  a  splendid  Paul  Veronese  in  the  Pisani  Palace, 
in  which  the  portraits  of  the  family  of  the  Pisani  are  in- 
troduced in  the  characters  of  Darius's  family  presented 
to  Alexander  the  Great.  But  to  my  mind  the  Venetian 
school  is  generally  uninteresting,  in  consequence  of  the 
want  of  ideality  and  delicacy  ;  they  are  too  like  nature  in 
its  coarseness.  I  can  forgive  an  aberration  from  nature 
when  the  wanderer  strays  into  a  higher  country  and  a 
purer  atmosphere.  The  expression  of  Domenichino's  St. 
Cecilia  at  Cadder  is  more  a  feeling  in  my  heart  at  this 
moment,  than  all  the  magic  of  this  school  of  colourists. 
Titian  has  mind  too,  undoubtedly  immense  mind,  but  not 
a  beautiful  or  poetical  mind. 

January  6  (1827). — This  is  the  Epiphany,  you  know,  or 
the  feast  of  the  three  kings,  who  have  been  substituted  by 
the  Catholics  in  the  place  of  the  Magi  or  wise  men  from 
the  East,  who  brought  gifts  to  the  new-born  Saviour.  They 
were  conducted  by  a  star.  He  himself  calls  himself  the 
bright  and  the  morning  star.  I  love  the  stars.  I  wish 
they  conducted  me  to  Christ.     Sometimes  they  do.     Oh 


74  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKIXE.  1827.' 

where  is  that  eternal  fountain  of  light  from  which  their 
lovely  lamps  are  filled  !  Even  as  the  heart  panteth  after 
the  water-brooks,  so  would  my  soul  pant  after  that  Foun- 
tain of  life,  and  light,  and  joy.  I  saw  one  of  their  cere- 
monies in  St.  Mark's,  and  heard  some  of  their  music.  The 
church  itself  is  most  imposing  with  its  many  arches  and 
its  gilded  mosaics,  representing  all  the  saints,  and  martyrs, 
and  hermits  that  ever  lived  ;  but  their  ceremonies  are  dis- 
gusting to  common  sense,  and  their  music  is  not  to  my 
taste.  The  patriarch  is  a  very  good  sort  of  man.  I  have 
dined  with  him  twice.  There  is  a  kindness  in  his  manner 
which  is  very  attractive.  He  is  most  unbigoted,  and  I 
have  caught  myself  often  speaking  to  him  about  the  foolish 
idolatries  of  his  Church,  as  if  he  had  been  a  Protestant. 
He  answered  me  to  such  observations  by  saying  that  it  was 
more  difficult  to  build  up  than  to  pull  down,  and  that,  in 
the  present  state  of  ignorance  in  Italy,  the  discontinuance 
of  these  ceremonies  would  probably  lead  to  entire  irreligion 
amongst  the  people, — that  he  did  what  he  could  towards 
erecting  schools  and  extending  the  advantage  of  education. 
He  is  reported  to  be  the  natural  brother  of  the  Emperor. 
He  certainly  has  considerable  influence,  which  he  uses 
humbly  and  beneficently.  He  is  going  away  to  another 
archbishopric  in  Hungary,  much  to  the  regret  of  the  people 
of  Venice.  He  comes  to  Mr.  Money's  occasionally,  and 
seems  to  enjoy  the  quiet  domestic  society  that  he  finds 
there.  ...  I  have  bought  two  or  three  pictures  here,  but 
no  great  things.  I  am  quite  nauseated,  in  fact,  with  the 
Venetian  school  at  present.  .  .  . 

This  is  indeed  a  very  remarkable  place,  the  narrowest 
wynd  leading  from  the  High  Street  to  the  Cowgate  is  much 
broader  than  the  generality  of  the  streets  here.  In  some 
of  them  two  persons  have  difficulty  in  passing,  and  then 
they  don't  run  straight,  so  that  it  is  extremely  difficult  to 


Mr.  38.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  75 

know  the  way.  When  the  inhabitants  of  the  better  class 
go  from  one  place  to  another,  they  generally  go  in  gondolas, 
so  that  they  have  no  occasion  to  get  acquainted  with  the 
streets  (or  colli  as  they  are  called),  and  hence,  in  fact,  many 
persons  who  have  lived  all  their  lives  in  Venice  are  as  little 
acquainted  with  it  as  you  are,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Piazza  di  San  Marco,  the  Ponte  di  Rialto,  and  the  Riva 
leading  to  the  public  garden.  They  go  to  bed  about  three 
in  the  morning  or  so,  and  get  up  pretty  early  too ;  but 
they  sleep  a  little  during  the  day,  and  in  truth  their  life  is 
a  long  sleep,  or  at  least  a  dream.  They  have  nothing  to 
do  but  to  pass  the  time,  which  they  do  by  drinking  coffee 
a  dozen  of  times  in  the  day,  by  attending  the  theatres, 
walking  on  the  Piazza  or  Piazzetta,  and  evening  parties. 
Good-night,  my  dear,  dear  friend. 

January  9. — I  have  heard  lately  from  my  friends  in 
Switzerland,  from  Coppet,  and  from  Carra,  the  Vernets' 
place.  The  Baron  de  Stael  is  just  about  to  be  married  to 
a  daughter  of  Madame  Vernet.  The  friends  on  both  sides 
are  much  pleased.  I  am  a  friend  of  both  sides,  and  I  am 
much  satisfied  (forsooth).  She  is  an  amiable,  well-minded, 
and  well-hearted  girl.  She  is  pious,  and  I  really  believe 
that  that  is  the  reason  of  their  marriage.  I  used  to  think 
that  he  would  have  liked  to  form  some  high  political  con- 
nection by  his  marriage,  and  I  regard  this  fact  as  an  evi- 
dence, and  a  tolerably  strong  evidence,  that  he  has  chosen 
for  himself  a  portion  which  is  not  temporal.  Dear  Madame 
Vernet  is  well  pleased,  and  Madame  de  Broglie  is  delighted. 
I  like  that  absolute  freedom  from  ambition  that  I  see  in 
these  people.  I  have  got  a  portrait  of  the  blind  old  Dan- 
dolo,  the  Venetian  Doge,  who  at  the  age  of  eighty  scaled 
the  walls  of  Constantinople,  or  at  least  was  the  first  to  dis- 
embark for  the  attack  of  that  place,  painted  in  1500  or  so, 
by  the  brother  of  Titian's  master,  taken  from  an  older  por- 


76  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1827. 

trait.  You  don't  care  for  that.  Well,  my  heart  is  with 
you.  May  the  God  of  peace  be  with  you !  Write  to  Rome. 
I  go  in  two  days. 

27.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  STIRLING. 

Bologna,  Feb.  1827. 
My  dearest  Kitty, — .  .  .  When  I  was  at  Venice  I 
bought  many  things  out  of  sheer  idleness — some  not  much 
worth,  but  there  are  two  portraits  in  my  gallery  which  are 
rarities.  They  are  by  Gentil  Bellini,  but  their  interest  does 
not  arise  from  that  circumstance  ;  one  is  the  portrait  of 
old  Dandolo,  the  eighty-year-old  Doge  who  took  Constan- 
tinople :  this  portrait  was  painted  in  1480,  copied  from 
another,  probably  the  original.  Dandolo  lived  about  1220. 
This  portrait  has  been  in  the  Dandolo  family  till  lately, 
and  I  have  got  their  attestation  of  its  genuineness.  The 
other  portrait  is  still  more  curious ;  its  history  is  this. 
Soon  after  Mahomet  the  Great  had  taken  Constantinople, 
he  took  a  fancy  to  have  a  picture  of  himself,  and  as  he 
knew  that  his  allies,  the  Venetians,  had  skilful  painters, 
he  desired  that  one  might  be  sent  who  could  do  him  justice. 
The  Venetian  ambassador  at  Constantinople  then  was  a 
patrician  of  the  family  of  Zen;  he  was  the  patron  of 
Gentil  Bellini,  and  in  return  for  this  good  office  Bellini 
gave  Zen  a  present  of  the  original  draught  which  he  made 
of  the  Sultan,  and  from  which  he  afterwards  copied  the 
portrait  which  remained  in  Constantinople.  The  Zen 
family,  like  almost  all  the  other  Venetian  families,  is  at 
present  in  great  poverty,  and  I  bought  from  them  this 
most  curious  and  living  painting  for  sixty  base  sequins. 
It  is  very  thin  and  sketchy,  but  life  itself — and  such  grand 
life.  I  have  been  at  Bologna  for  some  days,  and  have 
been  enjoying  the  Academy  very  much  ;  these  Domeni- 
chinos,  especially  the  Martyrdom  of  Sta.  Agnese,  are  the 


x.t.  38.  MRS.  STIRLING.  77 

works  of  a  fine  heart  and  a  high  genius.  I  would  not 
give  the  Sta.  Agnese  for  the  two  best  Correggios  in 
Parma,  though  I  know  that  I  am  speaking  treason  against 
the  established  authorities  in  the  kingdom  of  the  fine 
arts.  The  lights  of  Correggio  are  indeed  wonderful,  but 
Domenichino  seems  to  me  to  speak  a  fuller  language  to 
the  heart.  Correggio  is  too  fondling,  I  think.  After  I 
had  been  here  three  or  four  days,  my  domestico  di  piazza 
took  me  to  see  a  Sta.  Cecilia.  When  I  came  out  I  told  him 
that  a  friend  of  mine,  about  eighteen  months  ago,  had 
bought  what  I  was  sure  was  the  original  of  this  picture  ; 
he  immediately  asked  me,  with  great  keenness,  if  it  was 
not  Signor  Carlo  Stirling  that  I  meant.  I  told  him  yes, 
when  he  informed  me  that  he  had  also  been  your  cicerone. 
I  said  to  him  that  I  had  often  heard  you  speak  of  him 
with  great  approbation.  He  spoke  of  you  most  warmly, 
always  calling  Charles  Signor  Carlo,  whose  rapid  manner 
of  settling  with  the  picture-dealers  he  could  not  sufficiently 
admire — erafuriosa,  he  repeated.  I  have  been  endeavour- 
ing to  do  a  little  myself  here ;  I  have  been  probing  for  a 
very  fine  Titian  ;  I  don't  think  I  shall  get  it ;  the  man  asks 
1200  louis,  and  I  have  offered  1200  scudi,  according  to 
that  good  lesson  which  you  gave  me,  and  which  I  wish  that 
I  had  always  followed.  Whilst  this  great  negotiation  is 
going  on,  I  have  been  lying  on  my  oars — till  this  day, 
when  I  could  not  resist  making  a  little  purchase,  which  is 
now  perched  on  a  chair  before  me,  or  rather,  I  should  say, 
two  purchases,  a  very  fine  sketch,  which  I  hope  is  original- 
issimo,  of  Ludovico  Carracci,  for  his  great  picture  of  the 
Transfiguration,  in  the  gallery,  and  a  beautiful  abbozzo  of 
Paolo,  with  a  sky  and  architecture  worth  thrice  what  I 
paid  for  it.  Venice  is  not  so  good  a  place  for  buying 
pictures  as  Bologna.  I  think  that  I  rather  threw  away  my 
money  there  upon  Barbini.     Do  you  know,  my  dear  Kitty, 


78  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1827. 

just  two  or  three  days  before  I  left  Venice  the  thin  Barbini 
died  suddenly  from  the  rupture  of  a  blood-vessel — carried 
away  from  the  pictures,  and  shows,  and  shadows  of  things, 
to  look  on  the  great  realities.  I  find  that  the  solitude  and 
tranquillity  of  my  evenings  are  very  necessary  to  repair  the 
distractions  of  the  day.  I  hope  that  you  and  dear  Signor 
Carlo  have  quiet  wherever  you  are,  and  that  you  are  ad- 
vancing in  the  race  set  before  us.  ...  I  have  an  acquaint- 
ance here,  a  Marchese  di  Grudotti,  who  is  a  handsome  gay 
young  man,  very  fond  of  England  ;  he  wonders  why  I 
don't  take  advantage  of  his  acquaintance  to  get  into  society 
here.  I  told  him  that  my  business  was  to  keep  quiet. 
He  was  with  Bonaparte  at  Moscow.  I  met  him  crossing 
the  Simplon,  when  he  gave  me  his  address,  and  requested 
me  to  call  on  him  when  I  came  to  Bologna.  He  took  me 
to  the  public  library,  and  introduced  me  to  Mezzofanti, 
the  great  linguist,  who  was  very  conversible  and  modest, 
with  all  his  fame ;  I  shall  see  more  of  him,  I  hope. 

28.  TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

Rome,  \Zth  March  1827. 
My  dear  Cousin, —  ...  I  have  been  here  a  month 
nearly.  Rome  is  a  home  to  me,  so  vast,  so  desolate,  so 
beautiful,  so  full  of  the  past  and  the  future,  and  so  cut  off 
from  the  present.  It  is  an  image  of  eternity.  ...  I  live 
next  door  to  my  old  residence,  on  the  Monte  Pincio,  which 
commands  a  view  of  the  whole  city,  i.e.  the  modern  city, 
for  the  situation  of  the  ancient  city  is  different,  180  steps 
of  stairs  above  the  level  of  the  ordinary  habitations.  This 
is  a  tolerable  security  for  solitude.  My  visiting  friends 
would  need  to  be  strong  in  body  and  Avilling  in  mind. 
My  occupations  here  are  quite  different  from  what  they 
were  when  I  was  here  last.  I  go  rarely  to  see  any  of  the 
galleries.    I  remain  a  good  deal  in  the  house,  where  I  read 


at.  38.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  79 

and  write ;  and  when  I  go  out  it  is  on  horseback,  which 
enables  me  to  traverse  the  wilderness  of  the  ancient  city 
without  fatigue  or  consumption  of  time.  Oh  !  it  is  a  place 
full  of  instruction  and  inspiration.  The  handwriting 
Avhich  Belshazzar  saw  is  to  be  seen  here  on  many  a  wall, 
and  ruined  arch,  and  broken  column.  Man  was  here  taken 
in  all  his  pride  and  all  his  glory,  and  weighed  in  the 
balance,  and  found  wanting ;  and  this  mighty  queen  of 
cities  is  now  the  sepulchre  of  past  fame.  I  went  the  other 
day  to  the  burying-ground  of  the  Protestants  to  see  Mrs. 
Erskine's  tomb.  There  her  body  lies,  beside  that  of  Miss 
Bathurst,  who  was  drowned  whilst  I  was  here.  I  had 
often  spoken  to  Mrs.  Erskine  about  her  (Miss  B.'s)  death, 
so  suddenly  torn  from  the  society  of  time,  and  hurried  into 
the  society  of  eternity  in  a  moment,  without  the  slightest 
previous  warning.  Mrs.  E.  was  extremely  kind  to  me,  and 
she  liked  to  hear  of  heavenly  things.  The  monument  and 
the  inscription  are  very  proper.  Not  far  from  her  is  the 
body  of  my  poor  Swiss  friend,  Baillod.  My  dear  friend, 
every  hour  is  bringing  on  that  solemn  conclusion,  when  the 
mighty  angel,  with  one  foot  on  the  land  and  one  on  the  sea, 
shall  swear  by  Him  who  liveth  for  ever,  that  time  shall  be 
no  longer.  I  know  not  what  bodies  may  yet  be  buried 
here,  but  I  know  that  the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord  are 
blessed — blessed  not  for  a  day,  but  for  eternity — pronounced 
blessed  not  by  the  weak  and  ignorant  voice  of  man,  but 
by  Him  who  cannot  lie.  Oh !  how  blessed !  I  was  struck 
this  morning  by  a  passage  in  Adam's  Private  Thoughts. 
He  says,  "  I  never  look  upon  a  dead  corpse,  and  yet  my 
soul  perhaps  must  one  day  behold  my  own.  What  an 
awful  moment !  how  happy  will  be  the  sight,  if  soul  and 
body  have  lived  together  for  eternity !  how  dreadful  if 
they  have  not  !  and  what  a  call  is  there  in  this  thought 
to  make  sure  of  rejoicing  then  !  " 


80  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1827. 

I  left  Venice  about  the  middle  of  January,  in  weather 
as  wintry  as  Scotland  could  have  furnished,  bitter  frost 
and  deep  snow.  I  went  by  Parma  to  Bologna.  At  Parma 
they  have  got  the  finest  work  of  Correggio.  It  is  a  Holy 
Family,  with  St.  Jerome  standing  beside  them.  There  is 
something  very  absurd  in  that  entire  disregard  of  dates, 
of  which  all  these  great  painters  were  guilty.  St.  Jerome 
lived,  I  believe,  in  the  fourth  century,  but  there  he  is  with 
his  lion,  which  is  his  symbol  as  well  as  St.  Mark's.  So  far 
for  its  nonsense,  but  it  might  have  been  ten  times  as  much 
nonsense  with  perfect  impunity,  for  there  is  a  loveliness  in 
it  which  enchants  and  subdues.  Mary  Magdalene,  who, 
according  to  the  established  custom  of  those  gentlemen, 
almost  always  makes  a  part  of  the  holy  family,  is  kissing 
the  foot  of  the  infant  Saviour  with  an  expression  of  holy 
and  gentle  love  unutterable.  ...  I  have  been  reading 
Doddridge.  I  am  much  struck  with  the  deep  seriousness  of 
his  expostulations  and  entreaties.  I  have  never  read  him 
through  before.  I  believe  that  there  are  few  books  of 
modern  times  that  have  been  so  signally  blessed  to  the 
conviction  and  conversion  of  sinners.  It  was  composed 
by  a  praying  man,  and  his  prayer  has  been  answered  ever 
since.  .  .  . 

God  seems  in  this  world  to  bring  things  out  of  their 
opposites — life  out  of  death,  joy  out  of  sorrow,  holiness 
out  of  pollution,  glory  out  of  shame.  The  cross  is  the 
King's  highway  to  His  kingdom.  He  went  Himself  that 
way,  and  amidst  all  the  darkness  of  nature,  the  light  of 
His  countenance  still  shines  on  that  way,  and  on  those  who 
walk  there.  .  .  . 

29.    TO  MISS  HACHEL  ERSKINE. 

Rome,  5th  April  1827. 
My  dearest  Cousin  Rachel,— So  Lady  Oswald  has 


AT.  38.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  81 

been  called  away  from  her  important  post,  to  give  an 
account  of  her  stewardship.  I  never  saw  her,  but  from 
what  I  have  heard  of  her,  I  cannot  but  consider  her  removal 
as  a  most  solemn  and  dark  dispensation.  The  mother 
of  a  young  and  numerous  family,  a  supporter  of  the  name 
and  character  of  Christianity,  a  Avife,  a  friend, — a  friend  too 
of  some  who  have  few  friends  to  lose.  Well,  the  Lord  hatli 
done  it,  and  He  doeth  all  things  well.  He  does  not  need 
instruments  in  His  work,  and  sometimes  He  seems  to  intend 
to  make  His  own  fatherly  love,  and  care,  and  power  more 
manifest  and  more  felt  by  removing  intermediate  instru- 
ments. When  the  disciples  heard  that  their  Lord  was 
about  to  leave  them,  they  gave  themselves  up  for  lost,  but 
He  told  them  that  it  was  for  their  advantage  that  he  should 
go  away,  as  otherwise  the  Comforter  would  not  come  unto 
them.  Even  so  now  God  can  make  darkness  light  before 
these  mourners,  and  crooked  things  straight.  He  may 
speak  through  this  event  to  the  widowed  husband's  heart, 
and  He  may  draw  the  eyes  of  the  orphans  to  himself.  He 
took  little  children  in  his  arms  and  blessed  them  when  he 
was  upon  earth,  and  he  changeth  not.  He  yet  takes  them 
in  his  arms.  May  it  please  Him  to  do  so  now,  and  to 
attract  every  friend  she  had  to  himself,  to  fill  the  void  in 
their  affections.     The  Braces  will  feel  this  deeply. 

I  have  just  returned  from  a  funeral.  I  think  I  mentioned 
to  you  a  young  Irish  clergyman  who  had  come  abroad  for 
his  health  ;  but  the  disease  was  beyond  the  reach  of  climate. 
He  continued  to  sink  during  the  whole  winter.  When  I 
came  to  Rome,  Dr.  Peebles  introduced  me  to  his  room.  I 
feel  it  always  a  great  privilege  to  be  with  the  dying,  and 
I  have  enjoyed  this  privilege.  I  have  conversed  with  him 
upon  the  things  of  God,  and  the  riches  of  divine  grace 
treasured  up  in  the  Saviour.  I  have  heard  him  express 
his  hope  in  that  love  which  brought  that  Saviour  from 

F 


82  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1827. 

heaven  to  save  us,  and  he  has  now,  I  trust,  entered  into 
peace.  He  had  a  narrow  range  of  ideas,  and  had  no 
imagination  to  assist  or  mislead  his  religious  feelings.  His 
spirit  had  never  strained  itself  to  apprehend  the  things  of 
infinity,  but  he  was  conscientious  and  faithful  to  his  light, 
and  he  never  shook.  He  saw  death  approaching  with  the 
most  perfect  calmness,  and  he  retained  his  self-possession 
to  the  very  last  moment.  I  don't  believe  that  the  thought 
of  death  ever  cpiickened  his  pulse  a  single  beat.  Death 
lets  in  the  light  of  eternity  on  life,  and  passes  a  true  judg- 
ment on  it.  Happiness  is  not  to  be  sought,  but  holiness  ; 
unhappiness  is  not  to  be  shunned,  but  sin.  What  does 
Lady  Oswald,  or  my  poor  friend  Gresson,  think  of  earthly 
joy  or  sorrow  now  1  Oh  !  how  they  will  despise  and  won- 
der at  that  folly  which  puts  a  value  upon  anything  but  the 
favour  of  God  !  His  love  might  have  been  sought  and 
enjoyed  in  every  event,  in  every  duty,  at  every  moment ; 
and  what  paltry  things  drew  us  from  Him  !  Thus  the 
highest  saint  in  heaven  will  think  on  the  review  of  life. 

6th  April. — My  dearest,  I  have  just  received  your  letter, 
full  of  sorrow,  alas,  alas !  His  sisters  will  feel  it  deeply, 
but  my  sympathy  follows  the  dead  more  than  the  living. 
You  know  the  universality  of  my  hopes  for  sinners.  I 
hope  that  He  who  came  to  bruise  the  serpent's  head  and 
to  destroy  the  Avorks  of  the  devil,  will  not  cease  his  labours 
of  love  till  every  particle  of  evil  introduced  into  this  world 
has  been  converted  into  good.  When  I  was  in  Paris  our 
common  walk  together  was  a  burial-ground  at  the  top  of 
his  street ;  and  I  had  sometimes  the  hope  that  God  would 
speak  to  his  heart  out  of  these  graves.  I  loved  him  well, 
and  I  ought  to  have  written  more  to  him.  He  wrote  to 
me,  and  he  received  kindly  at  least  anything  that  was  said 
to  him,  however  contrary  to  his  own  notions  or  feelings. 
There  was  much  true-heartedness  in  him.     I  trust  that  in 


AT.  38.  HISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE  83 


the  records  of  eternity  there  is  an  hour  fixed  when  his 
spirit  shall  look  on  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  and  be  con- 
verted into  his  likeness ;  and  even  I  should  wish  to  hope 
that  the  God  of  all  grace  had,  before  He  called  him  hence, 
given  him  a  preparation  for  it.  Every  person  who  knew 
him  must  know  that  his  feelings  were  always  far  above  his 
expressions,  and  he  talked  lightly  sometimes  of  things 
which  he  did  not  feel  lightly.  .  .  .  The  churchyard  (bury- 
ing-ground,  I  mean)  is  increasing  its  associations  for  me. 
Mrs.  Erskine,  Baillod  the  Swiss  artist,  Scholl,  another 
Swiss,  whose  family  I  know,  Mrs.  Colquit's  daughter,  and 
now  Gresson.  The  situation  is  most  beautiful,  and  the 
weather  lovely.  The  sun  and  the  blue  sky  so  pure,  and 
beautiful,  and  melancholy,  and  the  young  leaves  coming 
out :  the  mystery  of  nature's  yearly  resurrection  spreading 
its  charm  over  the  earth.  I  have  not  yet  lost  my  delight 
in  nature.  I  don't  go  to  see  pictures  and  statues  now;  but 
I  can  look  at  the  blue  of  heaven,  and  at  the  clear  deep 
shadows  of  the  mountains,  and  at  the  sun  which  sets  just 
before  my  windows,  and  I  can  mourn  with  the  ruined  walls. 
Well,  "  the  mountains  shall  depart  and  the  hills  be  removed, 
but  my  kindness  shall  not  depart,  neither  shall  the  cove- 
nant of  my  peace  be  removed,  saith  the  Lord  that  hath 
mercy  on  thee."  That  is  something  worth  repeating.  It 
is  from  the  mouth  of  God,  and  it  is  said  to  you  and  me.  It 
is  something  for  a  living  hour  or  a  dying  hour,  or  an  hour 
beyond  time.  I  have  talked  with  Gresson  about  these 
things,  and  I  have  often  repeated  to  him  those  words,  and 
now  he  knows  all  about  it.  Perhaps  he  remembers  our 
conversations,  and  wonders  at  the  deadness  and  darkness 
of  them.  I  had  a  little  copy  of  the  Psalms  with  me  at  the 
funeral,  which  I  opened,  and  read  the  concluding  verses 
of  the  73d  Psalm,  from  the  23d  verse,  and  I  pulled  some 
leaves  of  which  I  send  you  two.     My  darling  cousin,  God 


84  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1827. 

bless  you  !  You  are  probably  retired  to  yonr  room  just 
now.  I  hope  you  do  not  allow  your  mind  to  feed  uselessh* 
upon  sorrow,  not  that  I  expect  you  are  ever  to  be  free  of 
sorrow,  but  that  you  ask  the  knowledge  of  that  blessed 
secret  which  is  contained  in  that  word,  "  As  sorrowful,  yet 
always  rejoicing."  ...  I  would  join  your  prayers,  that 
God  would  comfort  the  mourners,  and  sanctify  unto  them 
their  afflictions,  and  that  he  would  give  us  to  know  his 
holy  love  in  Christ  Jesus.  That  is  life  eternal,  whether 
in  this  world  or  in  another.  That  is  the  only  portion. 
It  is  about  midnight  here,  and  time  is  little  more  than  an 
hour  earlier  at  Gartur.  It  is  about  eleven  now  with  you. 
I  like  to  think  of  you.  I  know  the  shape  of  your  room, 
and  the  chair.  I  know  some  that  you  pray  for,  and  many 
that  you  think  of.  What  are  you  thinking  of  now  1  The 
sorrows  of  the  living,  or  the  blessedness  of  the  dead  who 
die  in  the  Lord,  or  that  blessed  remedy  which  heals  all 
evil — the  blood  of  Christ  ]     Good-night.  .  .   . 

30.    TO  MISS  CHRISTIAN  ERSKINE. 

Rome,  12th  April  1827. 
My  dear  Cousin, — I  am  away  far  from  you  in  body, 
but  I  have  confidence  in  you  that  your  affection  does  not 
depend  altogether  on  your  eye.  I  know  that  you  love  many 
whom  you  do  not  see,  and  whom  you  will  never  see  until 
the  resurrection  day.  The  spiritual  world  is  just  near  or 
distant,  according  to  our  own  thoughts  of  it.  It  is  always 
near  and  close  to  those  whose  hearts  are  upon  it.  That 
ladder  which  Jacob  saw  in  his  dream  at  Bethel  is  Jesus 
Christ.  On  Him,  as  on  a  ladder,  the  soul  can  mount  to 
God,  and  to  the  place  where  God  dwells,  surrounded  by  the 
love  and  praise  of  blessed  angels  and  redeemed  sinners,  and 
down  the  ladder  the  blessing  of  God,  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit, 
and  the  intimations  of  His  loving-kindness,  descend  to  us. 


iET.  38.  MISS  CHRISTIAN  ERSKINE.  85 

It  is  good  exercise  to  run  up  and  down  that  ladder,  and, 
my  dear  cousin,  thank  God  we  may  do  this  though  confined 
to  a  bed  or  a  sofa,  and  there  we  may  meet  our  friends  out 
of  the  body  or  in  the  body.  I  hope  you  sometimes  think 
of  me  when  you  are  upon  the  ladder,  and  that  you  look 
about  for  me.  Ah  !  there  is  a  time  coming,  I  hope,  when 
we  shall  go  up  and  come  no  more  down,  but  be  pillars  in 
the  temple  of  our  God,  and  go  no  more  out.  There  is  one 
thought  that  I  am  sure  connects  you  and  me  very  much 
together,  a  thought  partly  of  earth  and  partly  of  heaven, 
and  that  is  the  thought  of  Dr.  Stuart.  I  often  feel  a  wish 
to  write  to  him,  to  ask  what  he  thinks  of  certain  things, 
for  I  have  no  friend  now  of  the  same  kind  on  earth.  I 
have  excellent  friends,  but  none  who  take  the  same  vivid 
interest  that  he  did  in  some  subjects  that  occupy  me.  I 
have  this  instant  received  a  letter  from  Christian  and  her 
husband,  mentioning  the  death  of  Mary  Graham.1  Alas ! 
alas !  my  poor  uncle  and  aunts.  She  was  a  sweet  and 
beautiful  flower,  and  I  hope  now  transplanted  into  the 
paradise  of  God.  And  Charles  Hay  too !  Dear  Mary's 
removal  had  been  long  expected.  She  had  herself  for 
long  had  it  from  time  to  time  presented  to  her  mind  by 
faithful  friends  who  counselled  her,  and  prayed  with  her, 
and  kept  her  from  deluding  herself.  Katherine'2  was  there, 
and  were  I  dying,  I  should  like  to  have  Katherine  at  my 
deathbed.  But  there  was  no  Katherine  at  Charles's  bed- 
side. I  saw  a  great  deal  of  him  when  I  passed  through 
Paris  in  the  end  of  last  September.  He  was  full  of  kind- 
heartedness  and  true-heartedness.  And  Robert3  so  far  off! 
His  sisters  must  feel  very  severely.  They  have  not  been 
permitted  to  receive  the  last  words  and  looks  of  any  of 

1  Only  daughter  of  his  uncle,  Thomas  Graham,  Esq.  of  Airth. 

2  His  sister-in-law  and  cousin,  Mrs.  James  Erskine. 

3  Robert  Hay. 


86  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1827. 

their  brothers.  May  God  bless  these  wounds  to  the  spiritual 
good  of  those  who  suffer  from  them  !  Young  spirits  :  how 
many  are  now  dead  whose  births  I  remember,  gone  to  be 
added  to  the  generations  of  past  time  !  I  have  been  read- 
ing lately  Irving's  book  on  the  Prophecies,  and  a  very  strik- 
ing book  it  is.  He  writes  evidently  with  the  fullest  con- 
viction that  his  interpretation  is  right.  If  he  is  right,  we 
are  on  the  eve  of  a  tremendous  catastrophe,  in  comparison 
with  which  all  the  calamities  of  the  French  Eevolution  are 
as  nothing.  Infidelity  is  to  destroy  Popery,  and  to  break 
up  the  very  foundations  of  all  the  civil  and  political  in- 
stitutions of  Europe,  and  then  infidelity  itself  is  to  be 
destroyed  with  a  fearful  destruction.  I  have  only  got  one 
volume  yet,  but  really  I  think  he  marks  the  coincidence  of 
the  prophecies,  and  the  events  of  the  last  forty  years,  very 
fairly.  According  to  his  view,  our  blessed  Lord  is  Him- 
self to  appear  on  earth  in  forty  years.  Our  eyes  shall  be 
opened  from  the  dust  of  death  to  behold  Him.  Miss  Traill,1 
who  took  Dr.  Stuart's  miniature  for  me,  lent  me  the  book. 
Give  my  kindest  regards  to  Miss  Stuart,  and  to  any  friends 
who  inquire  about  me.  I  think  often  of  your  lane,  and 
your  garden,  and  your  gum-cistus  plant,  and  the  key  of 
Heriot's  Green,  and  of  the  venerable  forms  that  I  remem- 
ber moving  there,  but  are  now  no  longer  seen  by  the  mortal 
eye.  I  wonder  whether  we  are  ever  to  see  each  other  in 
this  world.  I  should  like  it ;  but  let  us  meet  on  the 
ladder,  and  meet  in  the  upper  sanctuary.  God  grant  it, 
for  Christ's  sake.  Remember  me  kindly  to  your  brother 
and  to  the  Burnetts,  through  Miss  Stuart.  T.  E. 

31.    TO  DR.  CHALMERS. 

Eome,  19th  April  1827 
My  dear  Sir, — This  letter  will  probably  find  you  in  the 

1  Daughter  of  the  minister  of  Panbride. 


iET.  38.  DR.   CHALMERS. 


midst  of  the  business  of  the  General  Assembly,  harassed 
considerably  both  by  friends  and  foes.  In  the  meantime 
I  am  quietly  looking  upon  the  seat  of  the  Beast,  and  won- 
dering at  him,  at  the  manner  of  his  existence,  and  at  his 
duration.  I  have  met  here  with  Irving's  book  upon  the 
Prophecies.  I  don't  suppose  that  any  mere  interpreter  of 
prophecy  has  ever  before  assumed  such  a  tone  of  confidence 
and  authority.  I  am  a  little  surprised  that  the  fate  of 
former  interpreters  has  not  warned  him.  He  is  scarcely 
meek  enough.  He  seems  to  intend  to  brave  and  insult 
such  of  his  readers  as  hesitate  about  yielding  their  entire 
consent ;  but  it  is  a  magnificent  book,  full  of  honest  zeal. 
There  is  a  Komish  priest  here,  who  in  the  reign  of  the  last 
Pope  wrote  a  book  on  the  Prophecies,  in  which  the  year 
1830  is  fixed  as  the  termination  of  all  the  wrath.  He  car- 
ried his  MS.  to  the  regular  licenser,  who  showed  it  to  the 
Pope  before  granting  leave  to  publish  :  the  Pope  desired 
that  licence  should  be  given  him  to  publish  it  in  the  year! 
1831.  I  have  an  Italian  master,  who  is  a  true,  honest, 
believing  Catholic,  and  who  cordially  pities  the  souls  of  the 
Protestants.  He  tells  me  that  the  study  of  the  Prophecies 
here  is  becoming  much  more  general  than  formerly,  and 
that  there  are  many  expecting  a  great  crisis. 

I  am  almost  a  believer  in  the  nearness  of  the  end,  and  I 
like  to  encourage  in  myself  any  idea  which  leads  to  watch- 
fulness and  prayer,  and  which  gives  a  greater  prominency 
to  spiritual  and  eternal  objects.  I  desire  to  look  and  wait 
for  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  and  to  long  for  His  appearing. 
I  wish  you  were  here  for  a  month  now,  instead  of  making 
your  usual  tour.  The  Niob6  of  nations  is  a  happy  name 
for  Rome.  She  is  full  of  beauty  and  interest  and  sorrow, 
but  there  is  a  lie  in  her  right  hand.  I  have  met  with 
some  good  specimens  of  Christianity  from  our  own  country 
here  at  Rome.     I  have  never  yet  seen  a  Catholic  who  was 


88  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1827. 


deeply  spiritually-minded.  I  have  not  found  any  in  the 
style  of  a  Kempis ;  they  are  formalists  even  when  they  are 
honest  believers,  which  is  not  a  very  usual  thing  amongst 
the  tolerably  educated  classes,  and  never  at  all  in  France. 
The  functions  of  the  Holy  Week  are  just  over,  and  such 
mummery  to  be  sure !  and  then  the  celebration  of  Easter 
by  an  illumination  !  The  existence  of  such  a  system, 
ecclesiastical  and  political,  is  a  fact  as  unaccountable,  or 
more  so,  than  the  continued  separate  preservation  of  the 
Jews, — the  government  of  a  corporation  of  priests  sub- 
mitted to  during  the  military  turbulency  of  the  middle 
ages,  and  the  enlightened  revolutionary  scepticism  of  the 
present  day,  and  a  system  of  imposition,  and  which  im- 
poses upon  no  one,  and  is  yet  opposed  by  no  one.  It  is  a 
very  strange  thing.  I  was  out  at  Tivoli  the  other  day ; 
though  the  cascades  are  ruined,  yet  it  has  beauty  enough, 
and  to  spare.  They  are  trying  to  repair  them.  There  are 
olive  trees  there  above  a  thousand  years  old — five  would 
reach  to  the  flood.  The  time  since  Adam's  creation  looks 
very  short  when  measured  in  this  way — a  succession  of  six 
olive  trees.  The  obelisks  (Egyptian),  of  which  there  are 
many  here,  bring  us  still  nearer.  My  eye  at  this  moment 
rests  on  the  Pantheon,  the  most  beautiful  thing  in  Rome. 

Give  my  best  regards  to  Mrs.  Chalmers  and  your  chil- 
dren. Farewell.  Many  thanks  for  your  letter. — Yours 
most  truly,  T.  Erskine. 

32.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

Eome,  May  2,  1827. 
My  dear  Cousin, — I  know  that  I  cannot  hear  from  you 
now  for  some  time,  so  I  must  even  write  to  you  instead  of 
it,  as  the  next  best  thing.  I  have  been  now  nearly  three 
months  in  this  place,  and  I  don't  tire  of  it.  ...  I  met 
yesterday  with  Sir  William  Gell,  one  of  our  unfortunate 


mt.  38.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  89 

Queen's  attendants ;  he  is  a  man  of  great  antiquarian  lore, 
and  delights  in  communicating  it  to  any  who  will  take 
interest  in  it.  He  is  a  reader  of  hieroglyphics  :  he  says 
that  the  oldest  obelisk  in  Rome,  that  at  St.  John  Lateran, 
is  contemporary  with  Abraham.  What  do  you  think  of 
that  % — a  few  hundred  years  later  than  the  deluge.  The 
human  race  is  a  very  recent  creation.  It  was  only  the 
other  day  that  Adam  and  Eve  were  in  Eden  walking  with 
God,  and  I  hope  we  shall  all  be  walking  with  God  again 
soon,  for  oh  it  is  a  dull  thing  as  well  as  a  wicked  thing  to 
walk  without  Him.  I  have  got  a  very  beautiful  little 
drawing  of  the  first  appearance  of  our  parents  before  God 
after  their  offence,  by  a  German  artist  here.  It  is  one  of 
a  series  intended  to  be  engraved  for  a  Bible.  The  Deity 
is  represented  in  the  human  form,  which  perhaps  you  will 
be  a  little  shocked  by,  but  in  that  form  there  is  a  compas- 
sion, and  a  regret,  and  a  holy  dignity,  which  will  soon 
reconcile  you  to  the  apparent  impropriety.  If  I  had  a 
good  opportunity,  I  daresay  that  I  should  send  it  home  to 
you  to  keep  for  me  till  I  came  to  claim  it.  Good-night, 
my  dear  cousin.  The  weather  is  lovely,  and  the  acacia 
trees  in  fullest  blow  and  beauty,  the  Campagna  clad  in 
the  richest  green,  all  the  vegetable  world  in  the  beauty  of 
its  youth,  and  the  sun  and  the  sky  in  glory.  I  saw  a  fire- 
fly to-night  as  I  was  coming  home.     Good-night  again. 

3d  May. — I  rode  to  Gabii  to-day, — one  of  the  earliest 
conquests  of  the  Republic,  and  the  great  quarry  of  their 
earliest  buildings.  You  know  that  most  of  their  massy 
stone  buildings,  and  especially  in  that  early  time,  were  made 
without  cement  of  any  kind — one  immense  block  was  laid 
above  another — well  fitted  in  surface  to  receive  it,  and  so 
they  remain  some  of  them  in  spite  of  time,  and  earthquakes, 
and  fires,  and  floods,  and  wars,  and  Pagans  and  Christians. 
You  know  that  Miss  F.  Mackenzie  is  here  now.     I  don't 


90  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKWE.  1827. 

see  nearly  so  much  of  her  as  I  ought  to  do,  or  as  I  wish  to 
do,  for  she  has  the  attraction  of  unhappiness  as  well  as 
many  other  good  qualities.  This  night  I  have  been  taking 
leave  of  friends  who  are  going  off  to-morrow  morning  for 
Naples.  You  tell  me  not  to  go  to  Naples,  but  just  to  come 
home,  but  I  have  engaged  to  go  :  however,  I  intend  to  make 
but  a  short  stay  there ;  I  wish  to  see  the  islands,  I  did  not 
visit  them  when  I  was  there  last,  and  they  have  the  fame 
of  exceeding  beauty.  Also  my  courier  is  engaged  to  be 
married  to  the  daughter  of  the  innkeeper  at  Mola  di  Gaeta, 
and  as  he  has  made  me  his  confidant  through  the  whole 
affair,  I  must  go  to  Naples  that  he  may  see  her  in  passing. 
He  is  an  excellent  servant,  and  very  much  attached — to 
his  master  I  mean — for  as  to  the  ragazza  di  Mola,  as  he 
calls  her,  though  I  have  no  doubt  that  he  will  be  a  good 
husband,  yet  I  don't  think  that  he  would  lose  a  night's 
rest  by  the  engagement  being  broken  off.  Good-night. 
This  is  very  incoherent  gossip  to  send  to  such  a  distance. 

My  dear  cousin,  there  is  more  worth  in ,  she  is  most 

conscientious,  and  she  has  real  friendship  in  her  as  well  as 
real  piety,  that  I  can  answer  for.  Is  the  Limekilns  man  in 
this  earthly  prison  yet  1  Blessed  are  the  dead  who  die  in 
the  Lord.  I  have  been  reading  a  very  curious  book  lately 
by  Law,  the  author  of  the  "  Serious  Call ;"  it  is  entitled 
the  Spirit  of  Prayer,  most  mystical  it  is,  but  most  beautiful. 
It  is  not  the  gospel,  but  I  think  it  may  be  profitably  read 
by  those  who  know  the  gospel.  Those  passages  which  I 
admired  so  much  in  the  translator's  preface  to  a  Kempis 
are  taken  from  it.  Perhaps  I  mentioned  this  to  you 
before. 

Qth,  Albano. — I  came  here  yesterday  on  my  way  to 
Naples,  and  have  passed  my  Sunday  here.  Albano  is  a 
fairy  land,  and  the  season  is  enchanting.  The  air  is  full 
of  fragrance  from  the  flowers,  and  of  music  from  the  birds. 


vet.  38.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  91 


The  nightingale  is  the  chief  minstrel.  All  the  other  birds 
seem  to  be  listeners  and  learners  for  the  time  ;  occasionally 
the  cuckoo  is  heard.  Ariccia  is  close  to  Albano,  you  know. 
.  .  .  Law  in  his  latter  days  took  to  reading  the  works  of 
Jacob  Bohme,  a  German  divine,  and  from  him  he  learned 
much.  I  should  like  to  read  him  too,  but  I  must  re- 
learn  German  in  order  to  fit  myself  for  it.  I  like  the 
German  mind  better  than  the  mind  of  any  other  nation, 
our  own  not  excepted.  We  are  very  meagre  in  comparison 
of  them.  I  like  the  Prussian  charge  d'affaires  at  Rome.1 
The  last  time  I  saw  him,  he  was  telling  me  of  cases  of  som- 
nambulism, or  animal  magnetism  as  it  is  called.  He  says 
that  many  extraordinary  instances  have  been  quite  authen- 
ticated. They  are  as  extraordinary  as  the  most  remarkable 
cases  of  second  sight  in  the  Highlands.     Good-night. 

1th,  Mola  di  Gaeta. — The  Mediterranean  is  spread  beneath 
my  eye.  The  shore  is  covered  with  the  remains  of  ancient 
villas.  The  lemon-trees  are  loaded  with  fruit,  and  the 
orange-trees  with  blossom.  The  productions  of  the  south- 
ern climates  are  becoming  more  frequent.  I  have  seen 
several  palm-trees  to-day,  beautiful  things  they  are,  chil- 
dren of  the  sun,  and  associated  in  my  mind  with  Abraham 
and  the  patriarchs  who  sat  under  palm-trees,  and  Deborah 
who  judged  Israel  under  a  palm-tree.  Did  not  I  mention 
Irving's  book  on  the  Prophecies  to  you  1  It  is  worth  your 
reading.  Do  the  Keir  ladies  take  interest  in  the  signs  of 
the  times  1  Give  them  my  best  love — I  love  them  well, 
and  I  do  not  wonder  at  any  degree  of  friendship  between 
Jeannie  and  Lady  M.,  for  friendship  is  a  thing  of  the 
heart,  and  it  may  exist  amidst  many  dissimilarities  when 
there  is  so  strong  an  agreement,  as  there  is  between  them, 
in  love  to  God. 

8th,  Mola. — It  is  a  lovely  morning.     The  bay  so  sweetly 

1  Chevalier  Bunnell. 


92  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1827. 


curved — the  ripple  of  the  clear  water  on  the  shore.  The 
islands,  which  have  not  yet  thrown  off  their  morning  veil 
of  mist,  if  anything  so  light  can  be  called  mist,  and  then 
Vesuvius  stretching  to  the  west  and  south,  and  the  pro- 
montory and  town  of  Gaeta,  and  many  an  olive-clad  hill, 
to  the  north.  It  is  not  six  o'clock  yet  in  your  country. 
How  fresh  everything  is,  and  these  warblers  that  fill  the 
air  with  music.  For  a  moment  one  might  forget  that 
solemn  word,  "  Cursed  be  the  ground  for  thy  sake,"  but  the 
appearance  of  the  people  recalls  it.  The  earth  was  cursed 
not  for  its  own  sake,  and  no  curse  can  be  severe  which  is 
not  deserved — it  is  the  evil  desert  itself  which  is  the  curse 
— except  in  one  instance,  where  the  righteous  suffered  for 
the  wicked ;  and  blessed  be  His  name,  the  day  is  coming 
when  that  sacrifice  of  His  shall  have  its  perfect  work,  when 
sin  shall  be  no  more,  when  the  waters  of  human  bitterness 
shall  be  healed,  when  there  shall  be  no  more  curse. 

9th,  Naples.—  I  arrived  here  yesterday,  and  I  am  now 
sitting  in  the  house  where  my  father  died — the  Crocelle — 
in  1791.  I  have  often  wished  that  I  had  the  slightest  trace 
of  him  in  my  memory,  but  I  was  just  two  years  old  when 
he  left  home.  I  know  nothing  of  my  father's  mind,  except 
very  general  traits.  I  don't  know  how  he  felt  when  he 
knew  that  he  was  on  the  borders  of  the  invisible  world. 
There  is  something  very  striking  in  the  relation  between  a 
father  and  a  child  when  death  prevents  any  personal  ac- 
quaintance between  them.  When  he  parted  from  me,  he 
knew  as  little  of  me  as  I  did  of  him,  and  yet  no  doubt  he 
felt  an  interest  in  me  ;  but  when  he  looked  at  me  he  could 
no  more  conjecture  what  was  within  me,  or  what  my  des- 
tiny might  probably  be,  than  he  could  conjecture  what  was 
going  on  in  the  moon.  What  a  strange  interest  that  is 
which  we  can  thus  take  in  beings  that  we  are  absolutely 
ignorant  of!     I  feel  a  love  for  my  father,  and  a  deep  inter- 


jet.  38.  M/SS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  93 

est  in  him.   Are  these  earthly  connections  to  extend  beyond 
this  world  in  any  shape  1  .  .  .  — Yours  ever,  T.  E. 

33.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

Island  of  Ischia,  4th  June  1827. 
My  dear  Cousin, — .  .  .  This  is  a  beautiful  place.  The 
view  from  the  house  where  I  am  living  is,  I  think,  the  very 
finest  that  I  ever  saw.  I  have  found  here  a  poor  man  who 
took  the  fever  of  the  country  in  Sicily  about  a  year  ago, 
and  he  has  been  in  a  state  of  constant  suffering  ever  since. 
Bodily  pain  is  a  great  trial.  It  interferes  with  the  mind's 
power  of  thought,  that  power  on  which  we  pride  ourselves, 
and  which  we  convert  into  an  idol,  although  it  is  a  gift 
from  God.  He  tells  me  that  he  is  seeking  God,  but  cannot 
find  Him ;  and  that  he  reads  the  Bible,  but  cannot  get 
satisfaction  from  it.  Alas  !  alas  !  I  was  at  Capri  the  other 
day,  the  island  where  the  Emperor  Tiberius  had  a  palace, 
where  he  spent  much  of  his  time  in  profligacy,  and  in 
cruelty,  and  in  misery.  Jesus  was  in  Judea  when  that 
building  was  erected.  It  is  a  very  singular  island,  divided 
into  two  parts  by  a  range  of  rocks,  so  lofty  and  so  steep 
that  there  is  no  communication,  except  by  means  of  a  stair 
cut  in  the  rock  (of  immense  antiquity  it  must  be)  of  535 
steep  steps,  and  there  is  no  landing-place  on  the  upper  part 
from  the  sea  either.  Every  foot  of  the  island  which  is  not 
under  cultivation  is  covered  with  myrtles,  which  were  just 
coming  into  flower.  Good-night. — I  have  been  tempted  to 
stay  two  or  three  days  more  here.  I  enter  into  the  spirit  of 
its  beauty — it  is  not  like  anything  else  I  have  ever  seen. 
La  Sentinella  is  the  name  of  my  inn  ;  and  it  received  its 
name  from  its  being  the  post  of  an  outlook  who  gave  notice 
of  the  approach  of  Saracen  corsairs,  who  used  to  ravage  this 
country  some  centuries  ago,  and  carry  off  the  inhabitants 
as  slaves.     It  commands  the  whole  view  of  the  Neapolitan 


94  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1827. 

coast,  from  Vesuvius  northward  to  Terracina — a  coast  of 
most  picturesque,  and  bold  and  various  form,  and  then  the 
island  of  Procyta,  dividing  that  part  of  the  sea  into  lakes, 
and  then  the  unbounded  ocean  to  the  west — and  the  home 
scenery  of  the  island,  which  is  rich  and  wild  beyond  fancy. 
The  house  is  situated  on  the  point  of  a  narrow  ridge  of  very 
elevated  ground,  and  overlooks  the  sea ;  on  each  side  of  the 
ridge,  about  20  yards  on  the  one  side,  and  not  so  much 
as  one  yard  on  the  other,  the  ground  sinks  down  into  a 
beautiful  theatre,  covered  at  present  with  one  mass  of 
verdure. 

Rome,  23d.  .  .  .  — Within  the  last  six  weeks  I  have  seen 
much  misery  in  different  forms.  I  wonder  now  how  life 
ever  could  have  appeared  to  me  a  sunny  thing.  There  is  a 
heavy  cloud  over  it.  I  really  wish  to  be  home  now,  but  I 
know  not  when  I  may  be  permitted.  Farewell,  my  dear 
cousin.  May  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  bless 
you  with  the  spirit  of  holy  unworldly  peace,  extinguishing 
in  you  the  life  of  the  old  nature,  and  giving  you  a  new  life, 
yea,  becoming  Himself  your  life.  "Will  you  ask  Mr.  Greig 
as  a  particular  favour,  that  he  would  conscientiously,  as 
unto  the  Lord,  and  not  as  unto  man,  assist  my  friends 
in  finding  some  proper  person  for  the  Ferry  Chapel  1 l 
Farewell. 

34.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  PATERSON. 

Albaxo,  26th  July  1827. 
...  It  is  warm  here,  but  I  have  never  yet  felt  the  heat 

1  A  chapel  in  the  village  of  Broughty-Ferry,  which  lay  near  Linlathen, 
built  originally  by  the  Haldanes  as  one  of  their  missionary  stations.  It 
was  then  the  only  place  of  worship  in  the  village,  and  the  services  in  it, 
conducted  generally  by  laymen,  had  been  irregular,  and  growing  more 
infrequent.  Mr.  Erskine  bought  this  chapel,  and  invited  ministers  of 
different  Churches  to  occupy  its  pulpit.  Occasionally  on  Sunday  even- 
ings he  delivered  an  address  in  it  himself. 


MRS.  PATERSON.  95 


oppressive,  not  so  much  so  as  when  I  was  at  Gartur  last 
year.  There  are  woods,  and  valleys,  and  lakes,  and 
mountains  so  near  that  they  maintain  a  perpetual  fresh- 
ness in  the  air ;  but  they  say  that  it  is  dreadful  in  Rome. 
I  have  bought  a  horse,  and  make  constant  use  of  him  in 
conveying  me  over  this  lovely  country.  The  two  lakes  of 
Albano  and  Nenu  were,  at  some  period  beyond  the  memory 
of  man,  the  craters  of  two  immense  volcanos,  in  form  very 
like  the  crater  of  Vesuvius.  These  craters  are  not  above 
half  way  up  filled  with  water,  and  the  banks  (which  are 
very  precipitous  from  the  water  edge)  are  covered  with 
wood  of  every  age,  and  boldly  broken  by  immense  volcanic 
rocks;  and  their  top  ridge  is  crowned  by  picturesque 
villages,  and  convents  with  white  walls,  and  lofty  pines, 
and  cypresses,  and  ilexes.  At  sunset  the  bells  from  these 
villages  and  convents,  as  they  answer  each  other  from  the 
different  points  of  the  ridge,  and  as  they  sink  or  swell  on 
the  breeze,  produce  that  effect  which  Mrs.  Radcliffe  in- 
tended to  produce  in  many  of  her  descriptions.  Humboldt, 
in  his  descriptions  of  the  South  American  scenery,  compares 
it  with  this  district  from  Nemi  to  Tivoli,  which  he  thinks 
the  finest  in  the  Old  World.  It  wants,  however,  the  magic 
light  of  Naples.  The  view  from  the  Sentinella  at  Ischia 
is  of  a  higher  order,  in  my  humble  opinion.  The  Appian 
Way,  the  queen  of  the  old  Roman  roads,  passes  through 
Albano.  Its  course  is  marked  by  the  massive  antique 
pavement,  and  by  the  ruined  monuments  of  the  forgotten 
dead,  which  line  it  on  both  sides.  I  think  that  it  was  a 
fine  idea  in  the  old  Romans  (and  it  was  the  custom  also  in 
Greek  cities)  to  erect  their  tombs  by  the  sides  of  their 
principal  roads  and  approaches  to  their  towns.  It  is  far 
better  than  Westminster  Abbey,  especially  when  you  are 
obliged  to  pay  half-a-crown  to  see  them  there.  These 
tombs  were  magnificent  towers,  round  or  square,  almost 


06  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1827. 


solid  through,  from  twenty  to  thirty  or  more  feet  in 
diameter.  Many  of  them,  Adrian's  tomb,  now  called  the 
Castle  of  St.  Angelo,  for  instance,  and  the  Cecilia  Metella, 
were  employed  as  military  positions  in  after-times.  I  am 
reading  German  and  Dante,  who  has  been  very  well  trans- 
lated into  English  lately  by — I  forget  his  name  just  now. 
I  am  at  present  occupied  with  the  Purgatory,  in  which 
there  is  much  beautiful  poetry.  The  idea  of  great  present 
suffering,  enlightened  by  the  assurance  of  future  eternal 
blessedness,  is  a  fine  subject  for  poetry  and  for  thought 
(which  poetry  ought  to  be).  In  truth  this  world  is  pur- 
gatory to  a  spirit  that  knows  God ;  and  the  terms  which 
Dante  addresses  to  the  spirits  with  whom  he  converses 
in  purgatory  may  properly  be  addressed  to  every  Chris- 
tian : — 

O  creatura  che  ti  mondi, 

Per  tornar  bella  a  colui  che  ti  fece. 

O  creature  who  thyself  unsoilest, 

To  return  beautiful  to  Him  who  thee  made. 

27th. — The  Secretary  to  the  French  Embassy  here,  a 
friend  of  mine,  tells  me  that  he  is  going  to-morrow  to  Paris 
with  despatches ;  and  as  a  motive  to  give  him  letters,  he 
says  that  he  goes  quicker  than  the  post.  I  should  like  to 
go  myself,  but  I  cannot  leave  the  poor  invalid.  I  have  just 
returned  from  a  delicious  ride,  part  of  the  way  through  a 
forest  of  fine  old  chestnut  trees.  They  look  like  ante- 
diluvian patriarchs.  ...  I  expect  the  Prussian  chargr 
d'affaires  out  in  this  neighbourhood  immediately,  which  I 
look  to  with  pleasure,  for  I  really  like  the  man.  He  has  a 
fine,  wide,  adventurous,  metaphysical  German  capacity,  and 
is,  I  believe,  a  Christian.  He  is  married  to  an  English 
woman,  a  very  good  woman.  I  shall  ride  with  him  and 
learn  German  philosophy.     God  bless  you. 


Xr.  39.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  97 

35.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  STIRLING. 

Albano,  31st  July  1827. 
My  dearest  Sister, —  ...  I  am  living  a  very  regular 
life  here.  I  get  up  early,  between  four  and  five  in  the 
morning,  for  the  mornings  and  evenings  are  the  only  times 
for  exercise.  I  ride  out  till  eight,  when  I  breakfast,  and 
then  remain  in  the  house  till  six  in  the  evening,  with  the 
exception  of  an  hour  in  the  middle  of  the  day,  which  I 
pass  in  a  delicious  bosco  here  close  to  my  house,  under  the 
shade  of  oaks  and  ilexes.  I  have  a  great  deal  of  time  at 
my  disposal  by  this  division  of  the  day,  and  I  read  and 
study  a  good  deal.  I  am  learning  German,  which  is  much 
to  my  taste,  and  this  very  day  M.  Bunsen,  the  Prussian 
charge"  d'affaires,  is  coming  out  from  Rome  to  reside  for  the 
summer  at  Castello  Gandolfo,  which  is  a  pleasure  to  me, 
for  he  is  an  instructive,  excellent  man,  and  is  very  friendly 
with  me. — Yours  ever,  T.  E. 

36.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

Linlathen,  10th  November  1827. 
My  dear  FRIEND, —  .  .  .  How  reluctant  we  are  that 
any  of  our  friends  should  get  into  the  promised  land,  whilst 
we  are  in  the  wilderness.  Ay,  and  what  a  hold  we  take 
of  the  wilderness  in  spite  of  all  its  barrenness  and  fiery 
serpents.  This  arises  from  a  want  of  spirituality.  Don't 
you  think  so  ?  I  wish  you  would  read  the  "  Spirit  of  Prayer" 
and  the  "  Spirit  of  Love,"  two  works  by  Law,  the  author  of 
the  "  Serious  Call,"  and  tell  me  what  you  think  of  them. 
I  have  been  much  struck  by  them.  There  is  a  great 
spirituality  in  them.  I  really  like  them  much  better  than  Mr. 
Irving's  "  Prophecies."  They  are,  however,  very  mystical, 
and  if  your  taste  is  much  averse  to  mysticism,  you  may  not 
like  them.     Bat  I  think  that  you  can  scarcely  help  likin« 

o 


98  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1827. 

them,  such  a  view  they  give  of  the  love  of  our  God,  and  of 
that  intimate,  and  blessed,  and  glorious  union  with  Himself, 
to  which  He  hath  called  us.  But  what  is  the  use  of  recom- 
mending books  to  those  who  are  taught  of  the  Spirit  to 
read  the  Bible,  and  to  see  in  it  a  message  from  their  loving 
Father  to  their  own  souls  1  Happy  the  heart  that  has 
learned  to  say  my  God !  All  religion  is  contained  in  that 
short  expression,  and  all  the  blessedness  that  man  or  angel 
is  capable  of. 

Dr.  Chalmers  is  appointed  to  the  Divinity  Chair  in  the 
Edinburgh  University.  May  the  Lord  bless  His  work  in 
the  hand  of  His  servant ! 

37.    TO  DR.  CHALMERS. 

Linxathen,  10th  November  1827. 

My  dear  Sir, — I  cannot  express  to  you  how  much  I 
have  been  delighted  by  your  appointment  to  the  Divinity 
Chair  in  Edinburgh.  I  have  felt  it  to  be  a  matter  of  much 
thankfulness  and  much  hope.  It  is  the  situation  to  which 
the  wishes  of  many  have  long  destined  you,  from  the  con- 
viction that  you  have  a  particular  gift  for  the  discharge  of 
its  high  duties.  May  the  Lord  answer  the  many  prayers 
which  have  been  and  will  be  presented  on  your  behalf  on 
this  occasion,  and  send  an  awakening  spirit  to  arouse  and 
vivify  the  torpid  Church  of  Scotland,  and  employ  you  as 
an  honoured  instrument  for  exciting  and  preparing  many 
who  may  be  zealous  and  wise  pleaders  for  God  with  the 
coming  generation. 

I  am  loath  to  miss  your  preliminary  lectures  this  year, 
but  I  must  go  to  the  west  to  see  my  friends  at  Cadder.  I 
hope,  however,  that  you  will  think  seriously  of  publishing 
your  Moral  Philosophy  lectures,  or  at  least  the  views 
which  you  have  given  of  the  subject,  so  far  as  they  differ 


^et.  39.  DR.  CHALMERS.  99 

from  those  which  have  been  prevalent  in  this  country  for 
three  quarters  of  a  century  back.  Moral  Philosophy  and 
self-conceited  infidelity  have  long  been  near  neighbours, 
and  may  in  fact  be  expected  to  be  so  whilst  man  wishes 
to  form  a  system  in  which  God  can  be  dispensed  with,  i.e. 
whilst  man  continues  as  he  is. 

On  my  return  from  the  west  country,  I  hope  to  be  able 
to  pay  you  a  visit.  All  here  desire  to  be  remembered  by 
you.  Give  my  best  regards  to  Mrs.  Chalmers  and  your 
children. — Yours  most  truly,  T.  Erskine. 


100  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  182S. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Case  of  the  Rev.  J.  M'Leod  Campbell  of  Row — Letters  of  1828, 
1829,  and  1830. 

On  returning  to  Scotland  in  October  1827,  Mr.  Erskine 
lost  no  time  in  committing  to  the  press  a  work  the  pre- 
paration of  which  had  engaged  his  leisure  hours  on  the 
Continent.  "  The  Unconditional  Freeness  of  the  Gospel  " 
was  published  early  in  1828.1  It  excited  so  immediate 
and  wide  an  interest,  that  a  second  edition  was  called  for 
before  the  end  of  the  year.  Its  author  was  not  prepared 
for  so  cordial  a  reception  of  this  volume  by  some,  still 
less  for  so  severe  a  reprobation  of  it  by  others.  Dr. 
Chalmers,  though  dissenting  from  one  of  its  positions, 
went  cordially  in  with  its  leading  principles,  and  said,  over 
and  over  again  to  his  friends,  that  it  was  one  of  the  most 
delightful  books  that  ever  had  been  written.  There  was 
another  reader  of  it,  the  impression  made  on  whom  was 
destined  to  have  wide  effects.  Frederick  Denison  Maurice, 
in  1852,  dedicating  the  volume  on  "The  Prophets  and 
Kings  of  the  Old  Testament "  to  Mr.  Erskine,  says,  "  The 
pleasure  of  associating  my  name  with  yours,  and  the  kind 
interest  which  you  expressed  in  some  of  these  sermons 
when  you  heard  them  preached,  might  not  be  a  sufficient 
excuse  for  the  liberty  which  I  take  in  dedicating  them  to 
you.  But  I  have  a  much  stronger  reason.  I  am  under 
1  See  Appendix,  No.  I. 


jet.  39.  FROM  F.  D.  MAURICE.  101 

obligations  to  you,  which  the  subject  of  this  volume  espe- 
cially brings  to  my  mind,  and  which  other  motives,  beside 
personal  gratitude,  urge  me  to  acknowledge.  .  .  .  Have 
we  a  gospel  for  men,  for  all  men  ]  Is  it  a  gospel,  that  God's 
will  is  a  will  to  all  good,  a  will  to  deliver  them  from  all 
evil  %  Is  it  a  gospel  that  He  has  reconciled  the  world  unto 
Himself]  Is  it  this  absolutely,  or  this  with  a  multitude 
of  reservations,  explanations,  contradictions  %  It  is  more 
than  twenty  years  since  a  book  of  yours  brought  home  to 
my  mind  the  conviction,  that  no  gospel  but  this  can  be  of 
any  use  to  the  world,  and  that  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ 
is  such  a  one.  .  .  .  Many  of  my  conclusions  may  differ 
widely  from  those  into  which  you  have  been  led ;  I  should 
be  grieved  to  make  you  responsible  for  them.  But  if  I 
have  tried  in  those  sermons  to  show  that  the  story  of  the 
prophets  and  kings  of  the  Old  Testament  is  as  directly 
applicable  to  the  modern  world  as  any  Covenanter  ever 
dreamed,  but  that  it  is  applicable  because  it  is  a  continual 
witness  for  a  God  of  righteousness,  not  only  against  idolatry, 
but  against  that  notion  of  a  mere  sovereign  Baal  or  Bel, 
which  underlies  all  idolatry,  all  tyranny,  all  immorality, 
I  may  claim  you  as  their  spiritual  progenitor." 

The  following  letter  was  at  the  same  time  addressed  to 
Mr.  Erskine  : — 

My  dear  Friend, — You  will  see  by  a  book  which  will 
reach  you  by  this  post  that  I  have  taken  a  great  liberty 
with  your  name.  I  was  afraid  you  would  refuse  me  if  I 
asked  you  beforehand,  or  that  I  should  make  you  re- 
sponsible for  what  I  said.  I  have  longed  to  do  what  I 
have  done  for  many  years,  when  an  occasion  should  offer. 
I  wished  to  tell  others  how  much  I  believe  they  as  well  as 
I  owe  to  your  books,  how  they  seem  to  me  to  mark  a  crisis 
in  the  theological  movement  of  this  time.     I  would  rather 


102  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1828-31. 

take  another,  less  public,  way  of  saying  what  I  owe  to  your 
personal  kindness  and  your  conversation,  but  you  will,  I 
hope,  forgive  me  and  believe  that  I  did  think  it  a  duty  to 
express  what  I  feel  towards  you,  in  connection  with  the 
task  which  God  has  shown  me  that  I  am  to  perform  for 
His  Church,  that  of  testifying  that  the  grace  of  God  has 
appeared  to  all  men.  Accept  our  best  and  most  cordial 
Christmas  greetings  to  you  and  all  your  circle.  .  .  . — Ever, 
my  dear  friend,  yours  very  affectionately, 

F.  D.  Maurice. 

December  21,  1852. 

It  was  long  after  its  publication  before  Mr.  Erskine  knew 
that  his  book  had  rendered  such  a  service  in  such  a  quarter. 
But  it  was  not  long  till  he  was  surprised  and  delighted  to 
find  that  the  ideas  of  the  love  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  as 
embracing  the  whole  human  family,  of  the  incarnation  and 
death  of  the  Eedeemer  as  having  removed  all  obstacles  to 
the  immediate,  free,  and  full  forgiveness  of  every  sinner  of 
our  race,  almost  in  the  very  form  in  which  he  had  himself 
in  this  volume  expressed  them,  were  already  being  fervently 
proclaimed  by  at  least  one  minister  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland.  If  not  before,  it  must  have  been  immediately 
after  the  publication  of  the  "  Unconditional  Freeness," 
that  he  heard  Mr.  M'Leod  Campbell  preach  in  Edinburgh. 
Returning  from  the  church  Mr.  Erskine  said  with  great 
emphasis  to  a  friend  who  accompanied  him,  "  I  have 
heard  to-day  from  that  pulpit  what  I  believe  to  be  the 
true  gospel." 

Hearing  his  own  favourite  ideas  unfolded  and  enforced 
with  such  intense  earnestness,  and  learning  at  the  same 
time  of  the  gathering  storm  which  was  so  soon  to  burst 
over  the  preacher's  head,  Mr.  Erskine  in  the  summer  of 
1828  made  his  first  pilgrimage  to  Row,  a  parish  lying  on 


mt.  39.  CAMPBELL  AND  SCOTT.  103 


the  banks  of  the  beautiful  Gairloch,  in  Dumbartonshire,  of 
which  Mr.  Campbell  had  been  ordained  as  the  minister 
in  1825.  Personal  acquaintance  deepened  exceedingly  the 
first  favourable  impressions.  One  life  lasting  friendship 
began.  Here,  too,  and  now,  another  kindred  friendship 
had  its  birth. 

One  Sunday  in  the  preceding  summer  (1827)  "my 
pulpit,"  says  Mr.  Campbell,  "  was  occupied  by  my  young 
friend  Mr.  Scott.1  I  heard  him  with  very  peculiar  delight. 
His  preaching,  though  his  second  Sabbath,  was  with  a  sober, 
solemn  composure,  that  would  have  seemed  a  delightful 
attainment  in  a  man  of  much  experience.  The  progress 
he  has  already  made  in  the  divine  life,  the  elevation  and 
clearness  of  his  views,  the  spirit  of  love  which  he  breathes 
in  every  word,  and  the  single-eyed  devotedness  to  his 
Master's  glory,  are  to  me  most  delightful  illustrations  of 
the  power  of  simple  faith."  2 

Mr.  Scott  was  with  Mr.  Campbell  again  in  the  summer 
of  1828,  and  there  met  Mr.  Erskine.3  It  was  quite 
unique  the  triple  friendship  which  had  thus  a  common 
birth  time  and  birthplace;  one  peculiar  feature  marking 
it    in    each    case.     "  That    historical    independence,"    Dr. 

1  Mr.  A.  J.  Scott,  son  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Scott  of  Greenock,  afterwards 
Principal  of  Owens  College,  Manchester. 

2  Reminiscences,  p.  22. 

Edward  Irving  met  with  Scott  during  the  same  summer  (1828),  and 
arrived  as  rapidly  at  the  same  high  estimate  of  Scott,  and  invited  him  to 
be  his  assistant  in  London.  "  Sandy  Scott,"  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Chalmers 
a  month  or  two  afterwards,  "is  a  most  precious  youth,  the  finest  and 
strongest  faculty  for  pure  theology  I  have  yet  met  with."  Nor  did  his 
after  experience  of  him  in  one  of  the  closest  of  clerical  relationships  alter 
this  estimate.  "A  young  man,"  he  wrote  of  him  in  1830,  "so  learned 
and  accomplished  in  all  kinds  of  discipline  I  have  never  met  with,  and  as 
pious  as  he  is  learned,  and  of  great,  very  great,  discernment  in  the  truth, 
and  faithfulness  Godward  and  man  ward." — Irviny's  Life,  vol.  ii.  68,  126. 

3  They  met  first  in  1826  when  Scott  was  attending  some  classes  in  the 
Edinburgh  University,  and  was  acting  as  tutor  in  the  family  of  one  of  Mr. 
Erskine's  friends. 


104  LETTERS  OE  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1828-31. 

Campbell  wrote  a  year  or  two  before  his  death,  "  which 
we  mark  when  two  minds,  working  apart  and  without  any 
interchange  of  thought,  arrive  at  the  same  conclusions,  is 
always  an  interesting  and  striking  fact  when  it  occurs  ; 
and  it  did  occur  as  to  Scott  and  myself;  and  also  as  to 
Mr.  Erskine  and  me,  and  I  believe  too  as  to  Mr.  Erskine 
and  Scott."1  All  through  life  each  of  these  three  friends 
found  in  the  other  two  what  he  found  in  none  beside. 
Intellectually,  socially,  spiritually,  they  moved  in  separate 
orbits  ;  each  having  a  path  of  his  own,  which  with  abso- 
lute independence  he  pursued.  But  the  paths  lay  very 
close  to  one  another ;  and  so  entirely  on  the  same  plane, 
sloping  upwards  to  the  great  central  Source  of  light  and 
life  and  love,  as  to  constitute  a  separate  sphere  of  religious 
ideas,  aims,  and  aspirations,  apart  from  and  far  above  that 
of  many  with  whom  their  names  came  afterwards  to  be 
associated. 

For  three  months  in  each  of  the  summers  of  1829  and 
1830,  Mr.  Erskine,  with  his  brother-in-law,  Captain  Pater- 
son,  and  family,  resided  at  Row.  His  personal  efforts  in 
the  way  of  supporting  and  co-operating  with  Mr.  Campbell 
were  multiplied  and  unceasing.  Morning  and  evening  at 
family  prayers  he  gave  a  short  exposition  of  Scripture, 
listened  to  by  as  many  as  could  find  entrance.  Pen  and 
press  were  busily  employed.2  Three  hours — often  more 
— were  each  day  given  to  addressing  still  larger  audiences. 

1  Life  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Story,  p.  152. 

-  In  1830  a  little  volume  was  issued  from  R.  B.  Lusk's  prolific  press  at 
Greenock,  entitled  "  Extracts  of  Letters  to  a  Christian  Friend  by  a  Lady, 
with  an  Introductory  Essay  by  Thomas  Erskine,  Esq.,  Advocate."  This 
Introductory  Essay  contains  the  clearest  and  most  condensed  statement  of 
all  that  was  peculiar  in  the  teaching  of  Mr.  Campbell  and  of  Mr.  Erskine 
at  this  time,  and  was  frequently  referred  to  as  such  by  those  who  wrote  in 
opposition  to  them.  See  the  "Gairloch  Heresy  Tried,"  by  Dr.  Burns  of 
Paisley  ;  "A  Vindication  of  the  Religion  of  the  Land,  etc.,  in  a  Letter  to 
Thomas  Erskine,  Esq.,  by  the  Rev.  A.  Robertson,  A.M.,"  etc.  etc. 


/ETC.  39.  MR.   CAMPBELL  DEPOSED.  105 

Mr.  Campbell,  in  truth,  needed  all  the  support  that  could 
be  given  him.  From  almost  every  leading  pulpit  in  Scot- 
land he  had  been  denounced.  Pamphlet  after  pamphlet 
appeared  proclaiming  the  depth  and  dangerous  nature  of 
the  errors  into  which  he  had  fallen.  At  first  his  own 
people  adhered  loyally  and  almost  unanimously  to  him. 
At  last,  however,  on  the  30th  March  1830,  a  few  of  their 
number  lodged  a  complaint  before  the  Presbytery  of  Dum- 
barton. A  visitation  of  his  parish  was  appointed  to  be 
held  on  Thursday  the  8th  July,  and  Mr.  Campbell  was 
required  to  preach  on  that  day  before  his  co-presbyters. 
He  did  so ;  keeping  back  no  part  of  the  teaching  for  which 
he  had  been  condemned.  Mr.  Erskine  was  present  on  the 
occasion,  and  has  told  us  of  the  result.  The  complainers 
against  their  minister  were  instructed  to  have  their  charges 
framed  into  a  libel  (or  indictment),  the  chief  count  in 
which  was  that  Mr.  Campbell  had  promulgated  the  doctrine 
of  "  universal  atonement  and  pardon  through  the  death  of 
Christ."  In  prosecution  of  this  libel  a  day  was  named  for 
the  examination  of  witnesses,  among  whom  Mr.  Erskine's 
relatives,  Captain  Paterson  of  Linlathen,  and  Captain 
Stirling  of  Glentyan,  gave  evidence  in  favour  of  Mr.  Camp- 
bell ;  his  own  headquarters  being  all  the  while  at  Row, 
watching  the  whole  proceedings  with  the  liveliest  interest. 
These  proceedings  were  brought  to  a  close  by  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  in  May  1831.  After 
the  counsel  for  the  accused  and  the  representative  of  the 
Presbytery  and  Synod  had  been  heard,  two  motions  were 
laid  before  the  House  ;  the  one  that  Mr.  Campbell  should 
at  once  be  deposed,  the  other  that  he  should  in  the  mean- 
time be  only  suspended.  The  former  was  carried  by  a 
majority  of  119  to  6. 

Before  the  sentence  was  actually  pronounced,  which  was 
done  forthwith,  some  slight  discussion  as  to  the  order  of 


106  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1828-31. 

procedure  took  place.  Dr.  Macknight  of  Edinburgh,  who 
held  at  the  time  the  office  of  Chief  Clerk  of  the  Assembly, 
on  being  appealed  to,  in  the  height  of  his  emotion,  and 
meaning  exactly  the  reverse  of  what  he  said,  was  heard 
to  declare  that  "  these  doctrines  of  Mr.  Campbell  would 
remain  and  flourish  after  the  Church  of  Scotland  had 
perished,  and  was  forgotten."  Mr.  Erskine,  who  was  pre- 
sent, caught  the  words.  Turning  to  those  behind  him,  he 
whispered,  "  This  spake  he  not  of  himself,  but  being  High 
Priest — he  prophesied." 

The  same  Assembly  that  deposed  Mr.  Campbell  deprived 
Mr.  Scott  of  his  licence  as  a  preacher  of  the  gospel.  Mr. 
Scott  had  expressed  opinions  as  to  the  universality  of  the 
atonement  identical  with  those  of  Mr.  Campbell,  and,  as  to 
the  Sabbath  question,  similar  to  those  afterwards  adopted 
by  Dr.  Norman  M'Leod.  ,  Though  holding  the  same  doctrine 
as  to  the  atonement,  to  Scott  it  appeared  that  their  view 
of  this  doctrine  was  contrary  to  that  affirmed  in  the  West- 
minster Confession  of  Faith,  to  the  whole  doctrine  of  which 
every  minister  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  was  bound  to 
adhere.  Campbell  thought  otherwise,  and  endeavoured  to 
convince  the  Assembly  that  though  not  in  full  harmony 
with  what  he  taught,  the  Confession  did  not  absolutely 
contradict  it.  The  two  friends  were  present  each  at  the 
other's  trial  before  the  Assembly.  When  Scott's  case 
closed  they  walked  home  together.  "After  that  dreary 
night  in  the  Assembly,"  he  tells  us,  "  the  dawn  breaking 
upon  us,  as  we  returned  at  length,  alike  condemned,  to  our 
lodging  in  the  New  Town  of  Edinburgh,  I  turned  round 
and  looked  upon  my  companion's  face  under  the  pale  light, 
and  asked  him,  Could  you  sign  the  Confession  now  1  His 
answer  was  No.  The  Assembly  was  right :  our  doctrine 
and  the  Confession  are  incompatible." 


>et.  40.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  107 


38.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

Linlathen,  26th  December  1S28. 
My  dearest  Cousin, — The  feeling  that  I  am  unsym- 
pathised  with  by  those  whose  sympathy  is  dearest  to  me 
is  not  that  which  pains  me  most  in  the  communication  I 
have  received  from  you.  In  general,  I  feel  a  great  demand 
for  sympathy  from  those  I  love,  just  because  I  love  them, 
and  because  that  love  gives  their  sympathy  a  value  to  me 
beyond  the  things  themselves  in  which  I  ask  their  sym- 
pathy. But  it  is  not  so  here.  The  thing  in  which  I  ask 
your  sympathy  is  far  dearer  to  me  than  any  human  sym- 
pathy ;  and  I  long  for  your  sympathy,  merely  because  T 
think  I  hold  the  truth,  and  I  wish  you  to  hold  it  also.  1 
do  not  think  that  you  can  see  the  importance  or  the  uni- 
versality of  Christ's  atonement,  if  you  can  disapprove  of 
the  proclamation  of  it,  though  by  a  layman.  You  have 
told  me  that  you  believe  that  "  Christ  is  the  propitiation 
for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world,"  in  the  obvious  sense  of 
these  words.  You  have  told  me  that  you  believe  that  this 
is  God's  message  to  this  world  of  prodigals,  that  this  is  the 
message  which  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  all 
who  believe  it.  Well,  do  you  also  know  that  this  doctrine 
is  looked  on  as  a  heresy  by  almost  all  the  teachers  of 
religion  in  this  country,  and  that  a  directly  opposite  doc- 
trine is  preached  1  If  you  believe  in  the  universality  of 
the  atonement,  you  must  believe  that  the  limitation  of  it 
is  a  falsification  of  the  record  which  God  has  given  con- 
cerning His  Son. 

I  live  in  the  conviction  that  the  record  is  continually 
falsified  in  the  ears  of  the  people  of  this  country  by  those 
whom  they  are  taught  to  look  up  to  for  instruction,  to  the 
dishonour  of  God's  grace,  and  to  the  injury  of  the  souls  of 
men.     God's  message  to  the  world  is  not  delivered  whilst 


108  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1828. 

a  limited  atonement  is  preached ;  and  so  long  as  this 
erroneous  interpretation  of  the  message  is  preached  from 
our  orthodox  pulpits,  the  people  may  have  the  Bible  in 
their  hands,  but  the  unfaithful  interpretation  will  be  a  veil 
on  their  hearts  in  the  reading  of  it.  There  were  many 
Bibles  among  the  Jews  when  our  Lord  appeared  amongst 
them,  but  the  unfaithful  interpretation  put  upon  their  con- 
tents by  the  scribes  of  the  time  blinded  the  people  to  the 
truth,  and  they  rejected  Him  of  whom  Moses  and  the 
prophets  wrote. must  know  that  it  is  most  im- 
portant that,  even  when  the  people  have  the  Bible  in  their 
hands,  there  should  be  some  one  near  to  say  to  them, 
"  Understandest  thou  what  thou  readest  1"  I  have  known 
people  long  possessed  of  the  Bible  who  never  read  it,  partly 
because  it  was  not  pressed  upon  them ;  and  I  have  known 
many  who  have  long  read  the  Bible  without  ever  appre- 
hending, even  in  theory,  its  most  elementary  truths,  be- 
cause they  were  accustomed  to  hear  a  false  interpretation 

of  them  weekly  from  the  pulpit.    If 's  arguments  were 

good,  there  need  be  little  anxiety  to  have  a  gospel  ministry 
in  a  place  well  supplied  with  Bibles.  I  see  people  about 
me  with  Bibles  in  their  houses  and  in  their  hands  (and 
who  think  occasionally  of  religion  too,  some  of  them),  to 
whom  the  message  that  God  loves  them  is  a  perfect  novelty 
even  in  sound.  If  I  can  do  anything  for  any  of  these  souls, 
these  immortals,  as  an  instrument  in  God's  hands,  am  I  to 
hesitate  because  I  am  classed  in  the  world's  list  under  one 
denomination  of  persons  rather  than  another1?  I  think 
that  Christians  are  too  often  popular  in  the  world,  just  on 
account  of  the  remaining  unchristianity  that  is  in  them. 
As  long  as  Christianity  subordinates  itself  to  the  world, 
the  world  will  like  it,  because  the  world  likes  to  have  its 
conscience  easy  as  to  eternity,  and  the  concurrence  of  a 
Christian  gives  it  that  ease.     My  dearly  beloved  friend,  I 


mt.  40.  MR.  AND  MRS.  MONEY.  109 

love  you  dearly.     I   know  that  I   am  not  to  expect  full 
sympathy  in  the  creation  : — 

"  Each  in  his  hidden  sphere  of  joy  or  woe, 
Our  hermit  spirits  dwell  and  range  apart." 

These  are  beautiful  lines,  and  most  true. 

39.    TO  MR.  AND  MRS.  MONEY. 

Ltnlathen,  Dundee,  23(7  Jan.  1829. 

My  beloved  Friends, — We  have  had  a  longer  interval 
in  correspondence,  I  think,  now  than  ever  we  have  had 
since  our  first  acquaintance,  but  I  have  not  ceased  to  love 
you  or  to  think  of  you,  and  I  doubt  not  of  your  thoughts 
and  remembrances.  About  this  time  two  years  ago  I  was 
on  the  eve  of  quitting  your  hospitable  house,  after  a  long 
and  delightful  residence  in  it,  for  the  more  southern  parts 
of  Italy.  Those  days  often  recur  to  me — our  trips  to  the 
garden  and  the  Lido,  and  our  visits  to  the  Patriarch,  and 
our  quiet  friendly  evenings.  May  the  Lord  Jehovah,  the 
God  of  peace,  bless  you  exceedingly,  my  dear  brother  and 
sister,  and  all  your  children,  present  with  you  or  absent. 

I  asked  the  favour  of  the  General  to  convey  to  you  a 
copy  of  a  little  work  which  I  published  last  year  on  the 
Freeness  of  the  Gospel,  which  I  hope  you  received.  I  am 
aware  that  at  Geneva  our  dear  Malan  takes  a  very  different 
view  of  the  subject,  but  in  spite  of  his  strong  dissent,  1 
feel  more  and  more  convinced  that  I  have  followed  the 
Word  of  God  in  describing  the  Gospel.  The  Bible  always 
charges  man  with  being  his  own  destroyer.  It  always 
charges  man  with  resisting  and  refusing  God's  love,  even 
when  that  love  is  entreating  him  to  return  :  Rom.  ii.  4,  .r>. 
The  Bible  declares  that  God's  love  embraces  the  whole 
human  race,  and  that  Christ  is  the  propitiation  for  the 
sins  of  the  whole  world  :   John   iii.  16,  17;    1  John  ii.  2; 


110  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1829. 

1    Tim.    ii.  1-6;    2    Cor.   v.    19,    20,    21.     Are    all   then 
redeemed  or  purchased  by  Christ  \     Yes.     What,  are  all 
saved?       No,    only   those    who    believe:    Mark   xvi.    16. 
Are  any  then  of  those  for  whom  Christ  died  lost  at  last  % 
Yes,  the  Bible  speaks  of  such  :  2  Peter  ii.    1.     There  we 
read  of  some  who  brought  upon  themselves  swift  destruc- 
tion by  denying  the  Lord  who  bought  them.     They  were 
bought  or  redeemed  by  the  Lord  (for  the  words  have  the 
same  meaning),  and  yet  they  brought  on  themselves  swift 
destruction.     And  we  read  in  the  10th  chapter  of  Hebrews 
of  those  who  have  trodden  under  foot  the  Son  of  God,  and 
have  counted  the  blood  of  the  covenant,  wherewith  they  were 
sanctified,  an  unholy  thing ;  they  were  sprinkled  then  with 
that    atoning   blood,  and  yet   they  perished.     Why  then 
does   one  man  believe  and  another    not]     Faith  is  the 
operation  of  the  electing  grace  of  God.     No  man  yields  to 
the  truth  until    he    is   compelled    by  this  electing   grace 
of   God.     This    is   the    proper   place   for    election ;   faith 
is  given  through  the  channel  of  election.     But  the  atone- 
ment is  for  all,  and  the  invitation  and  command  to  believe 
in  and  to  enjoy  it  is  for  all.     When  a  man  is  condemned  for 
unbelief,  you  cannot  suppose  that  it  is  for  not  believing  ir 
God's  love  to  others ;  assuredly  it  must  be  for  disbelieving 
God's  love  to  himself,  for  disbelieving  that  Christ  died  for 
him ;  and  if  he  is  condemned  for  disbelieving  it,  must  it 
not  have  been  indeed  true  that  Christ  did  die  for  him,  for 
otherwise  it  would  not  have  been  wrong  in  him  to  dis- 
believe it  1     So  the  Bible  says  to  you  and  to  me  :  '  God  so 
loved  thee  as  to  give  His  Son  to  be  a  propitiation  for  thy 
sins.'     I  cannot  see  how  one  can  arrive  at  a  steady  assur- 
ance on  any  other  ground,  for  we  cannot  know  our  elec- 
tion except  from  marks  in  ourselves,  and  that  is  not  the 
way  of  true  assurance.     Write  to  me  about  you  all. 

T.  Erskixe. 


jbt.  40.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  Ill 

40.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

Cadder,  Wednesday,  11  th  March  1829. 

My  dear  Cousin, — I  was  sorry  to  let  the  architect 
leave  this  for  Gartur  the  other  day  without  carrying  some 
palpable  testimony  of  my  ever  grateful  and  aifectionate 
remembrance  of  you,  and  therefore  I  have  begun  this  letter, 
that  another  messenger  from  us  may  not  go  empty-handed 
to  you.  I  almost  wish  that  I  were  with  you  just  now,  and 
I  wish  we  could  feel  the  pure  sap  of  the  true  vine  so  active 
within  us,  and  so  binding  us  together  by  its  heavenly 
sympathy,  that  we  might  have  an  uninterrupted  intercourse, 
and  might  feel  each  other's  presence  in  the  presence  of  our 
Eoot,  and  Head,  and  Fountain.  A  friend  of  mine  told  me 
that  he  had  been  at  different  times  sensible  of  spiritual 
blessings  bestowed  on  him  through  the  prayers  of  par- 
ticular persons  at  a  distance.  He  was  conscious  of  a 
special  blessing,  and  he  had  a  most  distinct  impression  that 
that  blessing  came  to  him  through  the  prayers  of  a  parti- 
cular person ;  and  on  asking  the  person  afterwards,  he 
learned  that  he  had  been  praying  for  that  very  blessing  on 
him.  I  like  such  a  story  exceedingly.  I  like  to  think  of 
the  condescension  of  our  God  answering  such  petitioners 
as  men  to  the  very  letter  of  their  petitions ;  and  I  like  to 
think  of  His  binding  souls  so  close  as  to  make  them  channels 
to  each  other  of  the  water  of  life.  And  thus  there  is  a 
great  increase  of  the  spirit  of  thanksgiving,  for  each  bless- 
ing is  not  only  a  reason  of  gratitude  to  the  receiver  of  it, 
but  also  to  those  whose  prayers  of  love  have  been  answered 
in  the  bestowment  of  it.  I  have  Keble  lying  open  before 
me.  The  hymns  for  the  Holy  Week  are  beautiful, — Monday 
is  exquisite  :  I  think  that  I  like  it  best  of  them  all.  The 
use  made  of  Andromache's  farewell  is  quite  filling  to  the 
heart,  and  the  theology  of  the  fourth  stanza,  "  Thou  art  as 


112  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1829. 

much  his   care,"  etc.,  is   worth,   in   my  mind,  the  whole 
Shorter  and  Longer  Catechisms  together.     Good-night. 

41.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

14  Royal  Crescent,  May  1829. 
My  dearest  Cousin, — .  .  .  Bishop  K.  is  very  amiable, 
and  sees  very  well  that  love  is  the  whole  matter;  but  he 
does  not  show  the  true  way  of  getting  it.     He  seems  to 
think  that  we  are  to  love  just  by  an  exertion,  a  con- 
scientious exertion.     Now,  will  you  look  at  the  third  chap- 
ter of  John  1     In  the  third  verse  our  Loid  says,  "  Except 
a   man    be    born   again,  he   cannot  see   the    kingdom  of 
heaven."    He  evidently  means  by  that  to  inform  Nicodemus 
that  no  improvement  of  his  present  faculties  or  principles 
could  introduce  him   into   the  spiritual   happiness  which 
was  the  perfection  of  man's  being,  but  that  a  new  life  was 
wanting  in  order  to  this.     Well,  what  is  this  new  life,  and 
how  is  it  to  be  had  1     For,  if  I  don't  know  how  to  get  it, 
my  knowledge  that  it  is  necessary  is  of  no  use  to  me,  but 
rather  an  aggravation  of  the  evil.     Look  to  the  sixteenth 
verse,  "  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  might  not 
perish,  but  have  everlasting  life,"     This  is  the  life  that  is 
wanting.     And  what  is  it  ]     It  can  be  nothing  else  than 
God's  love  to  the  world  in  the  gift  of  His  Son.     For  what 
is  it  that  enters  intojmr  hearts  when  we  believe  anything  1 
Is  it  not  the  thingthat  we  believe  1     Thus  some  friend  of 
yours  does  you  an  unkindness  which  you  know  nothing  of. 
Whilst  you  are  ignorant  of  it,  it  does  not  enter  into  your 
mind,  and  of  course  does  not  affect  you  in  any  way.    I  hear 
of  it,  and  tell  you.     You  answer  me,  "  I  have  known  that 
person  all  my  life,  and  I  don't  believe  it."     Whilst  you 
continue  to  disbelieve  it,  it  does  not  enter  into  your  mind, 
and  gives  you  no  pain.     I  bring  you  irresistible  evidence 


at.  40.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  \y,\ 

— you  believe  it,  and  it  enters  and  makes  you  miserable. 
So  when  a  history  of  love  is  told,  what  is  it  that  enters, 
when  it  is  believed,  but  the  love  1  It  is  thus  in  man's 
dealings  with  man ;  and  though  different  in  degree,  and 
even  in  kind,  yet  in  many  respects  it  is  thus  also  in  our 
dealings  with  God.  "  God  so  loved  the  world,"  etc.  God's 
love  is  the  only  spiritual  life — the  only  sap  of  the  universal 
vine,  and  it  can  only  enter,  as  it  cannot  but  enter,  by  being 
believed.  I  cannot~Eell  yl)u^iiedeligntliFat^l/l^ 
in  thinking  of  God's  love  to  man  as  a  disapproving  love. 
Man  confounds  love  and  approbation,  or  love  and  inter- 
estedness.  Thus  a  man  loves  those  whom  he  thinks  well 
of,  or  who  are  necessary  to  his  happiness.  But  God's  love 
acknowledges  and  demands  nothing  either  amiable  or  ser- 
viceable in  its  objects.  The  love  of  my  God  is  not  dimin-  . 
ished  by  His  disapprobation  of  me.  There  is  something 
remarkable  in  Christ's  substitution  for  Barabbas  in  a  way 
more  especial  than  for  any  other  individual,  that  he  might 
be  an  example  of  those  for  whom  he  died.  I  hope  dear  M. 
has  found  God  a  "  rifuge  trh  aisi  h  trouver,"  as  the  French 
happily  translate,  "  a  habitation  whereunto  I  may  alway 
resort."  May  He  dwell  in  her  as  a  strength  and  a  peace, 
and  ma}r  she  rejoice  in  Him  with  an  exceeding  joy.  May 
she  find  Him  in  everything,  for  He  is  in  everything,  and 
then  she  will  rightly  find  good  in  everything.  .  .  . — Yours 
affectionately,  T.  E. 

42.    TO  THE  SAME. 

Row  Cottage,  Helensburgh,  July  1S29. 
My  dear  Cousin, — I  long  to  speak  with  you  of  the 
great  things  of  God — of  that  life  which  He  hath  given  to 
us  in  His  Son,  the  great  Head,  and  through  whom  it  is 
communicated  to  all  the  members,  as  the  blood  is  com- 
municated through  the  heart  to  all  the  members  of  the 

H 


114  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKIAE.  1829. 


natural  body.  This  is  the  life  hid  with  Christ  in  God, 
which  is  brought  to  light  by  the  gospel ;  and  it  is  of  the 
same  thing  that  the  disciples  were  desired  by  the  angel  to 
testify,  when  he  said  to  them,  "  Go  and  speak  to  the  people 
all  the  words  of  this  life."  Death  had  entered  the  world 
by  the  belief  of  a  lie, — this  was  the  work  of  the  devil ;  and 
He  who  came  to  destroy  the  work  of  the  devil  communi- 
cated this  new  life  by  the  belief  of  a  truth.  The  Word 
was  with  God  and  was  God,  and  in  Him  was  life,  and  the 
life  became  light,  even  the  light  of  men.  That  is  to  say, 
the  invisible  life  of  the  Godhead  became  visible  in  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Word  made  flesh.  It  became  intelligible  and 
palpable  in  His  person  and  character.  And  as  the  light 
enters  into  us  by  our  eyes  seeing  it  so  this  life  enters  into 
us  by  our  minds  seeing  it,  i.e.  by  our  believing  it  or  know- 
ing it  as  a  truth.  Now  what  does  the  Spirit  testify  con- 
cerning this  light  which  is  life  ]  Look  over  the  first 
chapter  of  the  First  Epistle  of  John,  and  the  beginning  of 
the  first  chapter  of  his  Gospel.  John  Baptist  was  said  to 
bear  witness  of  that  Light,  and  this  is  his  witness  of  Him, 
"Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  who  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the 
world,"  John  i.  29.  And  see  also  what  the  Light  said  of 
Himself,  John  viii.  11  and  12,  "Neither  do  I  condemn 
thee  :  go  and  sin  no  more.  Then  spake  Jesus  again  unto 
them,  saying,  I  am  the  light  of  the  world :  he  that  followeth 
me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but  shall  have  the  light  of 
life."  These  two  verses  ought  never  to  have  been  severed. 
Their  meaning  consists  in  their  union  ;  the  "  Neither  do  I 
condemn  thee :  go  and  sin  no  more,"  the  sanctifying 
forgiveness  ol  God  manifested  in  Christ  is  the  light  of  life, 
and  he  that  seeth  it  hath  the  life.  Precisely  the  same  idea 
of  the  light  is  given  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  First  Epistle 
of  John,  5th  verse,  "  God  is  light,  and  in  him  is  no  dark- 
ness at  all,  and  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  his  Son  cleanseth 
from  all  sin "  (the  intervening  matter  in  the  sixth  and 


alt.  40.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  115 

beginning  of  the  seventh  verses  is  merely  a  commentary 
on  the  words,  God  is  light).  Thelight  consists  in  the 
forgiving  holy  love.  Now  mark,  the  works  of  light  are 
works  which  proceed  from  seeing  the  light  of  this  forgiving 
love  ;  as  the  works  of  darkness  are  the  works  of  those  who 
do  not  know  that  they  are  forgiven.  John  begins  his 
Epistle  by  saying  that  he  was  going  to  declare  that  which 
his  own  eyes  had  seen  of  the  Word  of  life — even  that 
eternal  life  which  was  with  the  Father,  and  was  manifested 
unto  us.  He  tells  us  that  by  the  knowledge  of  this  life, 
or  by  having  seen  this  light,  he  had  fellowship  with  the 
Father  and  the  Son ;  and  he  declares  it  to  others,  that  they 
also  may  partake  of  this  same  life,  even  the  life  which  the 
Father  lives  and  which  the  Son  lives.  And  the  way  which 
he  takes  of  introducing  us  into  this  fellowship  is  by  simply 
declaring  to  us  the  characteristics  of  that  light,  which  the 
life  had  become  :  "  This  is  the  message  which  we  have 
heard  of  him  and  declare  unto  yon,  that  God  is  light,  and 
in  him  is  no  darkness  at  all,  and  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ 
his  Son  cleanseth  from  all  sin." 

Christ  was  the  New  Head  of  the  human  nature.  Now, 
my  beloved  friend,  attend.  Suppose  we  were  in  a  church- 
yard, and  saw  the  earth  over  the  grave,  where  we  had  seen 
a  human  body  interred  some  time  before,  begin  to  move, 
and  at  last  we  saw  the  head  of  that  human  body  in  perfect 
life  elevating  itself  above  the  ground, — if  astonishment 
would  allow  us  to  reason,  should  we  not  feel  assui'ed  that 
the  rest  of  the  members  would  soon  follow  the  head, — 
should  we  not  know  that  there  was  life  in  the  body  again 
because  there  was  life  in  the  head  ]  Christ  is  the  second 
Adam,  the  real  unfigurative  Head  of  the  human  body.  1  fe 
had  suffered  death  as  a  partaker  of  that  tainted  life  which 
was  under  the  curse  ;  and  then  He  rose  again  with  a  new 
life  infused  into  Him.  In  the  person  of  Christ  risen  then, 
we  see  God  in  fellowship  with  our  nature,  even  with  as  ', 


116  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1S29. 


and  we  also  see  a  life  which  is  communicated  to  all  those 
who  see — "  Neither  do  I  condemn  thee  :  go  and  sin  no 
more  : "  for  this  is  the  life  made  light,  and  those  who  see 
it  have  the  life.  In  religious  hooks  we  find  the  death  of 
Jesus  chiefly,  almost  exclusively  pressed,  whereas  in  the 
Bible  we  find  that  the  apostles  were  ordained  to  be  wit- 
nesses of  His  resurrection,  Acts  i.  22.  See  also  Acts  ii. 
32,  33  ;  also  Acts  iii.  15-26  ;  Acts  iv.  33  ;  Acts  v.  31,  32  ; 
x.  40,  41  ;  xiii.  32,  33.  Is  it  not  clear  that  the  resurrec- 
tion is  pressed  on  us  by  the  apostles  in  a  way  quite 
different  from  what  it  is  by  ordinary  religionists  since  their 
time '? — Yours  most  affectionately,  T.  E. 

In  the  death  of  Christ  the  old  life  was  exhausted,  and 
in  the  resurrection  the  new  life  was  infused. 

43.    TO  MADAME  DE  STAEL.1 

25  St.  Andrew's  Square,  Edinburgh, 
4th  Sept.  1829. 

Gatjssen  is  quite  right  in  telling  you  that  I  do  not  forget 
you  before  God.  But  I  am  much  ashamed  of  my  negligence 
as  a  correspondent,  especially  when  I  consider  what  God 
has  given  us  to  correspond  about.  My  dear  friend,  we  may 
speak  to  each  other  about  God's  love — God's  forgiving  love 
in  giving  us  His  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins. 
He  has  given  His  Son  to  you  and  to  me,  and  in  Him  He  has 
given  us  all  things.  When  the  Bible  says,  "Acquaint 
thyself  with  God  and  be  at  peace,"  it  means  to  say  that 
there  is  something  in  God  which  necessarily  gives  peace 
to  every  one  that  knows  it.  If  a  soul  is  not  at  peace,  the 
only  reason  is  because  it  does  not  know  God.  If  Joseph's 
brethren,  as  they  stood  before  him,  and  not  knowing  who 
he  was,  but  hearing  him  speak  roughly  to  them,  had  been 

1  Daughter  of  Madame  Yeraet,  and  daughter-in-law  to  the  celebrated 
Madame  de  Stael. 


jet.  40.  MADAME  £>E  STAEL.  117 


told,  "This  is  your  brother  Joseph,"  they  would  immediately 
have  been  filled  with  terror,  thinking  that  he  would  now 
take  vengeance  on  them  for  their  treatment  of  him ;  but  if 
they  could  have  looked  into  his  heart,  and  had  seen  there 
a  forgiving  love  which  yearned  over  them,  and  which  was 
not  in  the  smallest  degree  affected  by  their  unkindness  to 
him,  it  is  evident  that  although  they  would  have  reproached 
themselves  far  more  than  ever  they  had  done  before,  yet 
they  would  have  had  a  perfect  deliverance  from  all  personal 
fears  on  their  own  account,  they  would  have  seen  a  ground 
of  confidence  in  their  brother's  character  which  must  at  once 
have  given  them  peace.  If  Joseph  had  loved  all  of  them 
except  one,  then  it  could  not  have  been  said  to  that  one, 
"  Acquaint  thyself  with  Joseph  and  be  at  peace,"  for  the 
knowledge  that  he  was  really  excluded  from  Joseph's  love 
would  have  given  him  terror  and  not  peace.  And  so  if 
there  were  a  single  being  whom  God  did  not  love,  then  it 
could  not  have  been  said  to  that  being,  "  Acquaint  thyself 
with  God  and  be  at  peace."  But  as  it  is  said  generally  to 
all,  it  must  also  be  true  to  all  that  God  loves  them,  and 
that  it  is  only  necessary  for  them  to  know  God's  feelings 
towards  them,  and  to  look  into  God's  heart,  in  order  to 
have  perfect  peace.  This  is  the  meaning  of  being  saved  by 
faith.  If  God  did  not  love,  and  had  not  forgiven  us,  our 
salvation  could  only  be  produced  by  our  doing  something 
which  might  make  a  change  in  God's  feelings  towards  us ; 
that  would  be  salvation  by  works,  or  by  our  doing  some- 
thing. But  since  God  does  love  us  and  has  forgiven  us, 
we  need  not  do  anything  to  change  God's  feelings,  and  all 
that  is  necessary  for  our  peace  and  confidence  is  to  know 
what  the  actual  state  of  God's  feelings  are  toward  us,  ami 
this  is  salvation  by  faith,  c'est  a  dire,  salvation  by  knowing 
our  real  circumstances.  All  human  religions  are  founded 
on  the  principle  that  man  must  do  something  or  feel  some- 


118  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1829. 

thing,  or  believe  something,  in  order  to  make  God  love 
him  and  forgive  him  ;  whereas  God's  religion  just  contains 
a  declaration  that  nothing  of  the  kind  is  necessary  on  our 
part  in  order  to  make  God  forgive  us,  for  that  he  hath  d^jii, 
already,  loved  us  and  forgiven  us,  and  given  us  His  Son, 
and  in  Him  all  things.  He  hath  declared  this  to  the  whole 
race  without  any  exception,  as  a  truth  to  each  individual ; 
so  that  the  difference  between  the  most  miserable  hater  of 
God  and  the  happiest  child  of  God  does  not  consist  in  this, 
that  God  loves  the  one  and  does  not  love  the  other ;  but 
in  this,  that  the  one  knows  l  God's  love  to  himself  and  the 
other  does  not.  It  is  the  same  difference  as  there  is  between 
two  men  standing  with  their  faces  to  the  sun,  the  one  with 
his  eyes  shut  and  the  other  with  his  eyes  open.  .  .  . 

And  why  has  God  taken  such  pains  to  satisfy  us  that 
He  has  indeed  loved  and  forgiven  all  men  1  Just  in  order 
that  every  individual  might  see  in  God  a  perfect  ground  of 
confidence.  Unless  you  know  that  God  has  forgiven  you,  and 
that  He  loves  you,  you  cannot  have  any  confidence  in  Him  ; 
and  unless  you  have  full  confidence  in  Him,  you  cannot  have 
peace  with  Him,  you  cannot  open  your  heart  to  Him,  you 
cannot  love  Him.  It  is  the  belief  of  His  forgiving  love  to 
yourself  which  can  alone  open  your  heart  to  Him.  This 
is  the  true  meaning  of  the  doctrine  of  personal  assurance. 
It  is  not  that  God  saves  a  man  because  he  has  an  assurance 
pf  his  own  personal  salvation,  but  that  our  hearts  cannot 
open  to  God  until  we  are  satisfied  that  He  loves  ourselves 
with  a  forgiving  love.  Until  we  are  satisfied  of  His  love 
to  us,  we  cannot  love  Him  ;  and  therefore  we  cannot  obey 
Him,  for  there  is  no  obedience  without  love.  This  is  the 
meaning  of  John  vi.   28,  29.     When  the  multitude  that 

1  The  last  words  of  Frederick  D.  Maurice  to  those  around  his  deathbed 
were— "The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  knoioledge  of  the  love  of 
God,  and  the  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  be  with  you  all ! " 


jet.  40.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  119 


were  following  Jesus  asked  Him,  What  shall  we  do  that 
we  may  work  the  works  of  God?  He  answered  them, 
"  This  is  the  work  of  God,  that  ye  believe  on  Him  whom 
He  hath  sent."  Their  question  was,  "  How  are  Ave  to  obey 
the  commandments  of  God  %  "  and  His  answer  was,  "  You 
must  begin  by  believing  in  God's  forgiving  love  to  you  in 
sending  His  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  your  sins."  For 
until  you  believe  this,  it  is  impossible  for  you  to  obey  the 
least  of  God's  commandments,  because  the  least  of  His  com- 
mandments requires  love,  and  you  cannot  love  Him  until 
you  are  assured  that  He  loves  you.  The  knowledge  of  our 
own  personal  forgiveness  and  of  our  being  personally  em- 
braced in  the  love  of  God  is  the  first  step  in  Christianity. 
No  one  is  a  Christian  until  he  knows  this.  And  how  may 
every  one  know  this?  See  John  i.  29,  2  Cor.  v.  19,  1  Tim. 
ii.  1-6,  1  John  ii.  2.  The  personal  assurance  rises  out  of 
the  general  declaration  of  forgiveness  to  all,  and  peace  and 
joy  and  love  rise  out  of  the  personal  assurance. 

I  long  much  to  see  both  Madame  de  Broglie  and  your- 
self, but  it  seems  to  me  that  God  has  called  me  to  be  a 
witness  for  the  truth  at  home.  I  am  continually  engaged 
in  preaching  to  small  congregations  at  present — three 
hours  every  day,  and  often  much  more.  If  God  lets  me 
see  it  to  be  my  duty  to  cross  the  Channel  this  autumn  to 
see  you,  it  will  be  a  great  delight  to  me.  Give  my  most 
brotherly  love  in  Christ  Jesus  to  Madame  de  Broglie  and 
to  your  dear  mother.  Give  your  child  a  kiss  and  a  blessing 
from  me,  as  from  one  who  loved  his  father.  Talk  over 
this  letter  with  Madame  de  B.,  and  let  me  know  how  you 
feel  about  it. 

44.  TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

15th  September  1820. 
My  dear  Cousin, —  ...  I  should  be  very  sorry  indeed  to 
be  the  means  of  depriving of  such  a  friend  as .   I 


120  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1829. 

doubt  not  that  God  will  make  them  channels  of  good  to 
each  other,  although  they  may  seem  to  injure  each  other 
at  present.     Both  of  them  misapprehend  altogether  the 

nature  and  object  of  personal  assurance. talks  of  it 

as  an  asserting  of  one's  confidence  of  an  interest  in  God's 
forgiveness  in  spite  of  doubts  and  misgivings.  I  don't 
quote  her  words,  but  the  idea  is  hers.  She  evidently  re- 
gards it  either  as  a  self-satisfied  conclusion  to  which  one 
is  led  by  a  discovery  of  some  supposed  good  in  one's-self, 
or  a  wordy  boldness  of  expression  belied  by  an  internal 
apprehension.  And  she  supposes  that  the  person  who 
arrives  at  it  imagines  that  he  has  arrived  at  something 
which  may  be  approved  of  by  God,  and  on  which  he  may 
rest  a  further  confidence.  Now,  there  is  nothing  of  all  this 
in  the  doctrine.  No  man  has  a  right  to  believe  anything 
about  his  relation  to  God,  except  on  God's  own  authority. 
If  God  has  not  told  a  man  that  his  sins  are  forgiven  him, 
it  would  be  presumptuous  in  him  to  believe  that  they  were 
forgiven ;  but  if  God  has  told  him  that  they  are  forgiven, 
then  the  presumption  consists  in  disbelieving  or  doubting 
it.  You  would  not  think  it  presumptuous  in  a  man  to 
believe  that  God  loves  and  forgives  him,  unless  you  thought 
that  God's  forgiving  love  was  limited  to  a  particular  class 
of  characters,  for  instance,  to  those  who  believe,  or  who 
repent,  or  who  amend ;  and  therefore,  when  you  hear  a 
person  say,  "  that  he  knows  that  God  loves  and  forgives 
him,"  you  immediately  suppose  that  he  assumes  to  himself 
to  belong  to  one  of  these  classes,  and  you  are  inclined  to 
question  him.  "  Are  you  sure  now  that  your  belief,  or  re- 
pentance, or  amendment  is  real  1 "  He  might  answer  you, 
"  God's  forgiving  love  is  declared  not  to  any  class,  not  to 
any  character,  but  just  to  sin,  and  to  the  world,  and  to  all 
men ;  and  God  says  that  those  who  don't  believe  in  God's 
forgiving  love    to    them    make  God  a  liar."     Bead  that 


4LT.  40.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  121 

account  on  the  proclaiming  of  God's  name  to  Moses  given 
in  the  33d  and  34th  chapters  of  Exodus,  "  The  Lord,  the 
Lord  God,  forgiving  iniquity,  transgression,  and  sin,  with- 
out clearing  the  guilty  "  (which  last  expression  refers  to  the 
sacrifice  of  Christ,  and  just  means  through  an  atonement). 
As  soon  as  Moses  heard  it,  he  thought,  This  is  just  the  God 
that  we  want,  for  the  people  are  continually  committing 
sin,  and  this  is  a  sin-forgiving  God  ;  and  Moses  made  haste 
and  said,  Go  with  us  ;  for  this  is  a  stiff-necked  people. 
That  for  is  an  extraordinary  word.  Bead  also  the  14th 
of  Numbers,  where  this  name  is  repeated. 

But  what  is  the  use  of  faith  in  Christ  at  all  ]  Is  it  that 
God  forgives  or  loves  a  man  for  believing  that  Jesus  Christ 
died  for  him,  to  take  away  his  sins'?  No  one  can  believe 
such  an  absurdity  who  exercises  his  reason  at  all.  No,  the 
use  of  faith  is  just  that  a  man,  by  knowing  the  actual 
state  of  God's  feelings  towai'ds  him,  by  knowing  the  reality 
and  intensity  of  His  forgiving  love  to  him,  may  have  perfect 
confidence  in  God,  and  thus  that  his  heart  may  open  and  let 
God's  living  Spirit  enter.  Now,  what  is  it  that  makes  man 
distrust  God  ]  What  is  it  that  makes  a  man  start  at  the 
idea  of  "  this  night  thy  soul  shall  be  required  of  thee  "  1 
What  is  it  but  the  witness  of  conscience  telling  him  that  he 
has  deserved  and  incurred  God's  anger  and  condemnation  1 
And  what  is  it  that  can  do  away  this  distrust  1  Nothing 
but  the  authentic  information  that  God  has  forgiven  him. 
The  belief  of  this  information  as  written  in  the  death 
and  resurrection  of  Christ  is  the  faith  of  the  gospel ;  and 
the  use  of  it  is,  that  it  makes  the  character  of  God  the 
ground  of  confidence.  If  the  confidence  is  not  produced, 
nothing  at  all  is  gained  for  the  man,  and  the  information 
of  God  is  evidently  rejected  ;  for  the  belief  of  that  would 
have  given  confidence,  and  was  intended  just  for  that  end. 

My  distrust  of  God  arises  not  from  the  belief  that  another 


122  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1829. 


person  is  under  condemnation,  but  from  the  apprehension 
of  my  own  condemnation,  and  therefore  my  confidence  is 
restored,  not  by  the  belief  of  the  pardon  of  another  person, 
but  from  the  belief  of  my  own  pardon.  Any  faith  short 
of  this  is  a  faith  below  man's  need,  as  it  is  a  faith  below 
God's  testimony.  Any  faith  which  is  not  personal  con- 
fidence appears  to  me  a  mere  fallacy.  I  have  precisely  the 
same  authority  and  obligation  for  believing  that  Christ  died 
because  I  had  sinned,  and  rose  again  because  I  was  pardoned, 
that  I  have  for  believing  that  He  died  and  rose  at  all.  The 
Bible  goes  upon  this  ground,  that  no  man  ever  did,  or  ever 
could  perform  one  act  of  obedience  to  God  until  he  believed 
that  his  sins  were  forgiven  him.  Till  a  man  knows  himself 
pardoned,  he  will  work  for  his  pardon,  he  cannot  help 
doing  it.  And  so  when  God  calls  on  him  to  work  for  God, 
to  love  God,  to  glorify  God,  He  tells  him  at  the  same  time, 
"  You  need  not  work  for  pardon  any  more,  for  I  have 
pardoned  you.  Now  you  may  work  for  God."  It  is  thus 
that  self  is  destroyed.  A  man  who  is  working  for  pardon 
appears  religious,  and  is  thought  religious  by  the  world ; 
but  it  is  just  the  religion  of  self  as  much  as  if  he  were 
working  for  £1000.  Will  you  compare  the  32d  Psalm 
with  2  Cor.  v.  19  ]  To  every  man  the  word  of  reconcilia- 
tion declares  the  same  thing,  viz.,  that  God  is  not  imputing 
sin  unto  him  ;  but  it  is  only  the  man  who  believes  it  who 
tastes  the  blessedness  of  it.  It  is  only  he  who  knows  God 
as  his  hiding-place.  It  is  only  he  whose  ear  is  opened  to 
hear  God's  voice  saying,  "  I  will  teach  thee,"  etc.  My  be- 
loved Kachel,  I  feel  this  most  deeply  interesting 

May  the  Spirit  of  holiness  and  of  power  accompany  it. 

45.    TO  DR  CHALMERS. 

Linlathen,  20th  October  1829. 
My  dear  Sir, — You  know  that  I  consider  the  proclama 


MT.  41. 


DR.   CHALMERS.  123 


tion  of  pardon  through  the  blood  of  Christ,  as  an  act  already 
passed  in  favour  of  every  human  being,  to  be  essentially  the 
gospel.  I  consider  this  to  be  the  only  gospel,  because  this  is 
the  only  intelligence  the  belief  of  which  will  immediately 
give  peace  to  creatures  under  condemnation,  when  they 
know  their  true  condition.  When  it  is  supposed  that  the 
pardon  is  not  passed  into  an  act  in  favour  of  any  individual 
until  he  believes  it,  no  one  can  have  peace  from  the  gospel 
until  he  is  confident  that  he  is  a  believer;  and  further,  his 
attention  is  entirely  or  chiefly  directed  to  that  quality  of 
belief  in  himself  which  entitles  him  to  appropriate  the 
pardon  to  himself,  so  that  his  joy  is  not  in  God's  character 
but  in  his  own.  You  object  to  all  this  by  asking  me, 
"  Where  is  the  pardon  if  the  man  continues  an  unbeliever 
to  the  end  1"  Now,  my  dear  and  much  respected  friend,  I 
think  that  I  distinctly  see  the  answer  to  this  in  the  Word 
of  God,  and  I  pray  God  that  He  may  cause  you  to  see  it 
also.  It  is  this.  The  penalty  pronounced  against  Adam's 
race  at  the  fall  was  death,  or  the  separation  of  the  soul  and 
body.  There  is  no  more  said  of  it  in  the  Bible.  The  death 
temporal,  spiritual,  and  eternal  is  an  invention  of  man  ; 
death  spiritual  is  just  sin,  for  it  is  the  shutting  out  of  God 
from  the  heart,  who  is  the  only  true  life,  and  therefore  it 
is  as  improper  to  say  that  death  spiritual  is  the  punish- 
ment of  sin,  as  to  say  that  sin  is  the  punishment  of  sin. 
Under  the  Adamic  dispensation  there  is  no  other  punish- 
ment mentioned  in  the  Bible  than  death.  Whilst  therefore 
this  penalty  of  the  broken  law  lay  upon  man,  no  human 
being  could  rise  again — that  penalty  must  have  lain  upon 
him  like  a  weight  keeping  him  in  his  grave,  and  the  rising 
of  any  human  being  is  a  proof  of  the  removal  of  the  penalty 
in  regard  to  him.  But  we  are  informed  that  every  human 
being  is  to  rise  again,  unbelievers  as  well  as  believers  ;  that 
is  to  say,  all  men  are  to  be  delivered  from  this  penalty  or 


124  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSK1NE.  1830. 

curse  of  the  broken  law.  How  is  this  1  "  Christ  hath 
redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of  the  law,  having  been  made 
a  curse  for  us,"  Gal.  iii.  1 3.  "  For  as  in  Adam  all  die,  so 
in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive,"  1  Cor.  xv.  22.  "  There- 
fore as  by  the  offence  of  one,  judgment  came  upon  all  men 
to  condemnation,  even  so  by  the  righteousness  of  one,  the 
free  gift  came  upon  all  men  to  justification  of  life,"  Rom. 
v.  1 8.  "  And  for  this  cause  He  is  the  mediator  of  the  new 
testament,  that  by  means  of  death,  for  the  redemption  of 
the  transgressions  that  were  under  the  first  testament,  they 
which  are  called  might  receive  the  promise  of  eternal 
inheritance,"  Heb.  ix.  15.  All  are  redeemed  from  the 
penalty  of  the  law,  and  the  act  by  which  they  have  been 
redeemed  is  an  act  in  which  God's  character  is  so  mani- 
fested, that  the  soul  which  sees  it  lives  by  it,  i.e.  receives 
the  eternal  life  which  was  in  the  Father  and  was  manifested 
in  the  Son,  even  that  eternal  life  which  consists  in  knowing 
the  only  true  God  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  He  hath  sent. 
The  soul  which  believes  not  in  this  act  which  manifests 
God's  holy  love  is  guilty  of  refusing  the  testimony  of  God 
concerning  His  Son,  and  shuts  out  the  eternal  life,  and  falls 
under  the  sentence  of  the  second  death — second,  because  the 
first  death  is  done  away. — Yours  most  affectionately, 

T.  Erskine. 

4G.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

Cadder,  1st  February  1830. 
My  dear  Friend  and  Cousin, — It  has  pleased  God  to 
take  our  beloved  friend  and  brother  Charles  Stirling  to 
Himself.  And  it  pleased  God  also  of  His  abundant  grace 
to  make  this  scene  of  death  a  glorious  victory.  From  the 
beginning  of  his  illness  he  anticipated  the  result,  and  he 
welcomed  it  as  his  Father's  summons  calling  him  home. 
God  did  great  things  for  him,  and  during  the  last  days 


JET.  41.  CAPTAIN  JAMES  STIRLING.  125 


of  his  life,  whilst  the  struggle  was  going  on,  the  Good 
Shepherd  never  left  him  for  a  moment.  I  was  with  him 
the  last  two  days,  and  heard  him  say  many  sweet  things, 
which  are  now  like  balm  to  poor  Christian's  heart.  He 
said  often,  "  Beloved  and  glorious  Redeemer."  "  No  per- 
plexity, no  alarm."  "I  see  the  splendour  before  me."  "Oh 
that  He  should  have  done  this  for  such  a  worm  as  I  am  ! " 
Once  he  said,  "  This  is  a  sweet  dispensation,  is  not  it  % " 
But  it  is  impossible  to  convey  by  words  any  idea  of  the 
peace  and  willingness  and  childlike  confidence  which  every 
look  and  every  tone  of  his  voice  expressed.  This  is  the 
Lord's  doing,  and  He  is  very  gracious  to  Christian  also. 
He  has  given  her  songs  in  this  affliction.  He  has  con- 
strained her  heart  to  give  Him  thanks  and  praise  for  the 
wonderful  works  which  He  hath  wrought  for  lost  sinners. 
She  is  much  exhausted,  however,  for  she  never  left  his  bed 
for  a  minute.  My  dear  friend,  Ave  have  a  God  in  whom  we 
may  well  rejoice ;  a  just  God,  and  yet  a  Saviour.  Blessed 
be  His  glorious  name  for  ever  and  ever.  Charles  said  once, 
"  You  see  in  me  what  sin  has  done,  and  what  the  Saviour 
has  done."  It  is  right  that  a  world  of  sin  should  be  a 
world  of  sorrow,  and  God  is  glorified  by  bringing  light  out 
of  the  creature's  darkness,  and  holiness  out  of  the  creature's 
pollution.  .  .  . — Yours  affectionately,  T.  Ekskine. 

47.    TO  CAPTAIN  JAMES  STIRLING. 

Cadder,  1st  February  1830. 
My  dear  James, — You  have  before  this  heard  of  the 
death  of  beloved  Charles.  He  died  the  death  of  the 
righteous,  giving  glory  to  God — not  of  constraint,  but 
willingly.  He  saw  the  whole  truth  fully  and  distinctly, 
and  rejoiced  in  it.  Davie  and  I  arrived  here  at  four  o'clock 
on  Friday  morning,  and  he  survived  till  Saturday  night, 
between  nine  and  ten.     He  sjave  us  a  loving  and  cheerful 


12G  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKTNE.  1850. 

welcome ;  lie  told  us  that  his  soul  was  full  of  .peace  and 
joy  in  the  Lord,  that  God  was  all  light,  and  no  darkness 
at  all ;  he  then  said  to  me,  "  It  has  just  come  to  me  like 
a  flash  of  light  that  you  were  right  about  these  things;"  1 
and  then,  turning  to  Christian,  he  said,  "  And  James  and 
Mary  spoke  a  great  deal  about  it  to  us  also."  God  thus 
put  a  testimony  into  His  servant's  heart  and  mouth  at  that 
solemn  moment;  and  I  trust  that  dear  Christian  has  it 
fully  in  her  heart  too.  She  told  me  just  now,  when  I  was 
up  with  her  by  her  bedside  (where  she  is  lying  very  weak), 
that  her  eye  never  lost  sight  of  Christ,  and  that  her  peace 
and  even  rejoicing  had  never  failed.  Blessed  be  God  who 
giveth  the  victory,  and  who  always  maketh  those  who 
trust  in  Him  to  triumph.  It  was  most  edifying  to  see  how 
his  sense  of  the  evil  of  sin  grew  upon  him,  without  ever 
shaking  his  perfect  confidence  in  the  redeeming  work  of 
Christ.  It  was  indeed  a  scene  most  glorifying  to  God. 
You  will  rejoice  Eliza's  heart  by  telling  her  these  things. 

Behold  what  manner  of  love  the  Father  hath  showed  us. 
I  have  had  some  sweet  views  of  the  Creator  manifested  in 
the  Redeemer ;  and  I  have  tasted  the  grace  of  God  in  that 
"  God  has  so  loved  the  world,"  etc. — Farewell,  my  dear 
brother  in  Jesus ;  give  my  Christian  love  to  Eliza. 

T.  EltSKINE. 

48.    TO  MRS.  MACHAR.2 

Edinburgh,  1th  July  1830. 
I  AM  going  to  Helensburgh  to-morrow,  with  the  view  of 

1  The  universality  of  the  atonement,  etc. 

2  The  daughter  of  a  minister  of  an  adjoining  parish,  who,  in  1829,  came 
to  reside  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Linlathen.  Mr.  Erskine  had 
ministered  great  comfort  to  her  in  a  season  of  great  distress.  A  mutual 
and  strong  attachment  was  formed  which  lasted  for  life,  unbroken  by  the 
circumstance  that  in  1832  Miss  Sim  married  the  Rev.  John  Machar,  D.D., 
Minister  of  Kingston,  and  removed  with  him  to  Canada,  where  she  has 
t-vei  since  resided. 


Mt.  4r.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  127 

being  present  when  Mr.  Campbell  preaches  before  the 
Presbytery  on  Thursday.  May  he  be  given  a  mouth  and 
wisdom  by  the  Holy  Ghost !  I  have  been  seeing  much  more 
into  the  character  of  our  present  dispensation,  our  supply  as 
the  groundwork  of  future  judgment.  The  supply  is  God's 
forgiving  love  and  favour.  This  belongs  to  each  one  of 
us.  In  this  time,  which  is  the  accepted  time  and  day  of 
salvation,  we  are  dealt  with  not  according  to  what  we  are, 
but  according  to  what  Christ  our  Head,  the  Head  of  every 
man,  is.  "But  when  the  judgment  comes  we  shall  be  dealt 
with  according  to  what  we  shall  then  be  in  ourselves. 
And  thus  that  favour  which  is  upon  every  man  now,  if 
not  received  into  him  so  as  to  become  his  life,  will  be 
his  condemnation. — Yours,  etc.,  T.  Erskine. 

49.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

14  Royal  Crescent,  16th  July  1S30. 
Dearest  Cousin  Rachel, — I  know  that  Davie  has 
written  to  tell  you  how  the  Lord  ordered  things,  and  per- 
mitted things  on  the  occasion  of  Mr.  Campbell's  preaching 
before  the  Presbytery.  You  would  be  much  struck  with 
this  thing  in  particular,  that  they  had  left  all  general 
charges  against  Mr.  Campbell,  and  fixed  on  one  point,  and 
that  point  the  love  of  God  in  Christ  to  every  man.  Tin; 
expressions  Avhich  they  animadverted  on  were,  "  That  the 
agony  of  Christ  expressed  the  measure  of  the  love  of  God 
to  every  man,"  and  "  that  no  man  could  act  as  a  peace- 
maker between  God  and  man,  who  could  not  tell  man  that 
God  had  made  peace  with  him."  They  have  entered  it 
into  their  record  that  they  regard  these  statements  with 
abhorrence    and   detestation.1     Jehovah    is  God  and  not 

1  "  We  have  learned  that  the  Presbytery,  l>y  a  great  majority,  re- 
corded their  detestation  and  abhorrence  of  the  doctrine  contained  in  two 
sentences  in  the  sermon,  which  we  believe  are  to  the  following  purport  : 


128  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1830. 

man,  therefore  are  we  not  consumed.  He  loves  these 
men  with  a  love  that  seeks  to  enter  into  them,  and  to  make 
them  the  habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit.  He  loves 
them  with  a  love  that  has  brought  Him  into  the  flesh  to 
taste  death  for  them,  that  He  might  destroy  in  them  the 
works  of  him  who  had  the  power  of  death,  even  the 
devil.  .  .   . 

'  God  loves  every  child  of  Adam  with  a  love  the  measure  of  which  is  to  be 
seen  in  the  agonies  of  Christ,'  and  that  '  the  person  who  knows  that  Christ 
died  for  every  child  of  Adam  is  the  person  who  is  in  the  condition  to  say 
to  every  human  being,  Let  there  be  peace  with  you,  peace  between  you 
and  your  God.'" — The  Whole,  Proceedings  in  the  case  of  the  Rev.  John 
M'Leod  Campbell,  pp.  xix.,  xx.  The  two  sentences  are  given  in  almost 
exactly  the  same  words  in  the  "  Notes  of  a  Sermon  preached  in  the 
Parish  Church  of  Row  on  Thursday,  being  the  day  of  the  Visitation  of 
that  Parish  by  the  Presbytery  of  Dumbarton,  by  the  Rev.  J.  M.  Campbell. 
Taken  in  short-hand.  Greenock,  1830."  Pp.  23  and  25.  These  two 
sentences  formed  one  of  the  counts  in  the  libel. 


/et.  41.  THE  SPIRITUAL  GIF7S.  129 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Spiritual  Gifts— Letters  from  1830  till  1835. 

In  a  cottage  at  the  head  of  the  Gareloch,  Isabella  Camp- 
bell had  lived  that  saintly  life  told  with  such  beauty  and 
pathos  by  her  devoted  pastor,  the  late  Mr.  Story  of  Eose- 
neath.  Her  death  had  made  her  home  at  Fernicarry  a 
shrine  of  resort  to  which  the  pilgrim  steps  of  many  were 
directed,  who  gathered  round  her  sister  Mary,  upon  whom 
the  mantle  of  the  departed  seemed  to  have  fallen.  One 
Sunday  evening  in  the  end  of  March  1830,  as  Mary  lay 
in  weakness  upon  a  sofa,  suffering  apparently  under  the 
same  disease  which  had  carried  her  sister  to  the  grave, 
whilst  those  around  her  were  praying  for  the  restoration  of 
the  gifts  bestowed  upon  the  primitive  Church,  suddenly, 
as  if  possessed  by  a  superhuman  strength,  she  broke  forth, 
speaking  in  an  unknown  tongue,  in  loud  ecstatic  utterances, 
for  more  than  an  hour. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  Clyde,  opposite  the  Gareloch,  lay 
the  town  of  Port-Glasgow.  A  family  of  the  name  of  Mac- 
donald  was  living  there  at  this  time  ;  James  and  George, 
twin  brothers,  with  their  sisters.  Two  years  before,  the 
brothers,  shipbuilders,  staid  and  orderly  men,  had  become 
exceedingly  devout.  Their  religion  was  of  a  quiet  and 
unobtrusive  type.  "  Their  doctrinal  knowledge  was  at 
first  very  limited.  They  procured  no  religious  books,  for 
years  they  scarcely  read  one ;  the  ministry  under  which 

I 


130  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1830. 

they  sat  was  unimpressive,  and  if  they  did  adopt  peculiar 
views  of  divine  truth,  it  was  from  no  heretical  writings  or 
preaching,  but  from  the  Bible  alone  that  they  derived 
them.  For  instance,  although  they  soon  became  classed 
among  the  disciples  of  Mr.  Irving,  who  at  that  time  was 
beginning  to  be  stigmatised  as  heretical,  the  fact  was  that, 
so  far  as  I  can  ascertain,  they  never  read  a  single  volume 
of  his,  or  at  least  not  for  years  after  their  own  views  were 
established.  And  although  after  a  time  they  began  to 
attend  the  preaching  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Campbell  of  Row, 
it  was  because  they  had  previously  been  taught  of  God  the 
same  truths,  and  were  attracted  to  Eow  by  their  love  of 
them.  .  .  .  Until  the  eve  of  the  miraculous  manifestations 
in  them,  the  subject  of  spiritual  gifts  did  not  at  all 
occupy  their  attention,  much  less  their  expectations 
and  desires ;  nor  did  it  even  when  their  prayers,  in 
common  with  those  of  other  Christians,  for  an  outpouring 
of  the  Spirit,  began  to  be  answered  by  the  pouring  out  of 
a  very  extraordinary  if  not  marvellous  spirit  of  prayer 
upon  themselves."1  In  March  1830  an  event  occurred  in 
this  family  which  one  of  the  sisters  thus  describes  :  "  For 
several  days  Margaret  had  been  so  unusually  ill  that  I 
quite  thought  her  dying,  and  on  appealing  to  the  doctor  he 
held  out  no  hope  of  her  recovery  unless  she  were  able  to  go 
through  a  course  of  powerful  medicine,  which  he  acknow- 
ledged to  be  in  her  then  case  impossible.     She  had  scarcely 

been  able  to  have  her  bed  made  for  a  week.     Mrs. 

and  myself  had  been  sitting  quietly  at  her  bedside,  when 
the  power  of  the  Spirit  came  upon  her.  She  said,  '  There 
will  be  a  mighty  baptism  of  the  Spirit  this  day,'  and  then 
broke  forth  in  a  most  marvellous  setting  forth  of  the 
wonderful  work  of  God ;  and  as  if  her  own  weakness  had 

1  Memoirs  of  James  and  George  Macdonaldof  Port-Glasgow,  by  Robert 
Norton,  M.D.,  pp.  58,  59,  78. 


jet.  41.  THE  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  131 

been  altogether  lost  in  the  strength  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  con- 
tinued with  little  or  no  intermission  for  two  or  three  hours 
in  mingled  praise,  prayer,  and  exhortation.  At  dinner- 
time James  and  George  came  home  as  usual,  whom  she 
addressed  at  great  length,  concluding  with  a  solemn  prayer 
for  James,  that  he  might  at  that  lime  be  endowed  with  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Almost  instantly,  James  calmly 
said,  '  I  have  got  it ! '  He  walked  to  the  window,  and 
stood  silent  for  a  minute  or  two.  I  looked  at  him,  and 
almost  trembled,  there  was  such  a  change  upon  his  whole 
countenance.  He  then,  with  a  step  and  manner  of  the  most 
indescribable  majesty,  walked  up  to  Margaret's  bedside,  and 
addressed  her  in  these  words,  '  Arise  and  stand  upright.' 
He  repeated  the  words,  took  her  by  the  hand,  and  she 
arose."1 

The  same  evening  James  wrote  to  Fernicarry.  Let 
Mary  Campbell  herself  tell  us  of  what  happened  on  the 
receipt  of  this  letter  :  "  I  had  scarcely  read  the  first  page 
when  I  became  quite  overpowered,  and  laid  it  aside  for  a  few 
minutes ;  but  I  had  no  rest  in  my  spirit  until  I  took  it  up 
again  and  began  to  read.  As  I  read,  every  word  came  with 
power,  but  when  I  came  to  the  command  to  arise,  it  came 
home  with  a  power  which  no  words  can  describe  ;  it  was 
felt  to  be  indeed  the  voice  of  Christ ;  it  was  such  a  voice 
of  power  as  could  not  be  resisted.  A  mighty  power  was 
instantaneously  exerted  upon  me.  I  first  felt  as  if  I  had 
been  lifted  up  from  off  the  earth,  and  all  my  diseases  taken 
off  me.  At  the  voice  of  Jesus  I  was  surely  made  in  a 
moment  to  stand  upon  my  feet,  leap  and  walk,  sing  and 
rejoice.  0  that  men  would  praise  the  Lord  for  His  good- 
ness, for  His  wonderful  works  to  the  children  of  men."2 

1  Memoirs  of  James  and  George  Macdonald  cf '  Port-Qlosgow,  by  Robert 
Norton,  M.D.,  pp.  107,  108. 

2.4  Vindication  of  the  Religion  of  the  Land,  etc.,  by  the  Rev.  A. 
Robertson  of  Greenock,  pp.  251,  254. 


132  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1830. 

After  her  recovery  Mary  Campbell  lived  during  the  sum- 
mer of  1830  at  Helensburgh.  There  meetings  innumer- 
able were  held,  manifestations  extraordinary  were  made. 
To  the  speaking  was  now  added  writing  in  the  unknown 
tongues.  When  the  moment  of  inspiration  came  Mary 
seized  the  pen,  and  with  a  rapidity  "like  lightning" 
covered  sheets  of  paper  with  characters  believed  to  be  letters 
and  words.  The  gift  of  prophecy  too  was  largely  exercised, 
a  gift  not  to  be  confounded  with  foretelling  of  future  events 
or  ordinary  Christian  teaching,  but  consisting  in  inspired 
exalted  utterances,  opening  up  some  obscure  passage  of 
Scripture,  or  enforcing  some  neglected  duty,  or  break- 
ing forth  ecstatically  into  prayer  and  praise.  Crowds 
gathered  round  the  young  attractive  rapt  enthusiast. 
"  Among  their  number,"  says  one  who  wrote  in  the  midst 
of  the  excitement,  "  they  can  reckon  merchants,  divinity 
students,  writers  to  the  Signet,  advocates.  ...  I  have 
known  gentlemen  who  rank  high  in  society  come  from 
Edinburgh,  join  in  all  the  exercises,  declare  their  implicit 
faith  in  all  Mary  Campbell's  pretensions,  ask  her  concerning 
the  times  and  seasons,  inquire  the  meaning  of  certain  pas- 
sages of  Scripture,  and  bow  to  her  decisions  with  the  utmost 
deference  as  those  of  one  inspired  by  Heaven."1 

From  Edinburgh,  Dr.  Chalmers  wrote  to  his  friend 
Mr.  Story  of  Roseneath,  eagerly  asking  information,  desir- 
ing especially  to  have  a  copy  of  some  of  the  writing  in  the 
alleged  unknown  tongue.  Mr.  Story,  in  order  to  supply 
himself  with  the  required  information,  paid  a  special  visit 
to  Mary  Campbell.  "  I  had  just  taken  her  by  the  hand," 
he  writes  to  Dr.  Chalmers,  "  to  bid  her  adieu,  when,  obvi- 
ously possessed  by  some  irresistible  power,  she  uttered  for, 
I  should  suppose,  nearly  an  hour,  sounds  altogether  new  to 

1  A  Vindication  of  the  Religion  of  the  Land,  etc.,  by  the  Rev.  A. 
Robertson  of  Greenock,  p.  311. 


jet.  41.  THE  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  133 


my  ear,  but  which  seemed  certainly  to  be  language.  .  .  . 
I  recognise  in  none  (of  the  written  characters)  the  signs  of 
any  language  I  know,  but  many  have  seen  her  note  them 
down,  and  it  is  with  inconceivable  rapidity,  and  as  if  she 
herself  were  unconscious  of  the  exertion.  Both  in  speak- 
ing and  in  writing  she  describes  her  words  and  movements 
as  in  every  respect  independent  of  her  own  volition.  .  .  . 
The  greater  jealousy  manifested  by  you  and  others  the 
more  will  you  serve  the  interests  of  truth,  and  the  more  I 
am  persuaded  you  will  be  prepared  to  conclude  that  these 
things  are  of  God  and  not  of  men."1 

In  Port-Glasgow  the  area  of  manifestation  was  enlarged. 
The  gift  of  interpretation  was  added  to  that  of  the  tongues. 
By  both  the  Macdonalds  these  two  gifts  were  in  constant 
exercise.  They  were  bestowed  also  upon  others.  Pro- 
phetic utterances  abounded.  The  excitement  grew,  the 
visitors  from  a  distance  increased.  "  Ever  since  Margaret 
was  raised  and  the  gift  of  tongues  given,"  writes  one  of  the 
sisters  (May  18th,  1830),  "the  house  has  been  filled  every 
day  with  people  from  all  parts  of  England,  Scotland,  and 
Ireland."  Special  interest  was  awakened  where  special 
hopes  in  this  direction  had  for  some  time  been  cherished. 
Five  delegates  came  down  from  London,  who  stayed  three 
weeks  at  Port-Glasgow,  and  had  every  opportunity  of  see- 
ing all  that  was  going  on,  and  of  becoming  personally 
acquainted  with  those  engaged  in  it.  One  of  these, 
a  solicitor,  recognised  and  quoted  as  an  entirely  com- 
petent witness  by  the  writer  of  an  article  in  the  Edin- 
burgh Review,2  closes  his  description  of  what  he  witnessed 
thus  : — 

1  Memoir  of  the  Life  of  the  Rev.  Robert  Story,  pp.  209-211.  Two  years 
afterward  Mr.  Story,  like  Mr.  Erskine,  saw  reason  to  think  differently  ;  see 
pp.  213-224. 

2  "  Pretended  Miracles— Irving,  Scott,  and  Erskine."  First  article  in 
No.  10G  of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  June  1831. 


134  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1830. 

"  These  persons,  while  uttering  the  unknown  sounds,  as 
also  while  speaking  in  the  Spirit  in  their  own  language,  have 
every  appearance  of  heing  under  supernatural  direction. 
The  manner  and  voice  are  (speaking  generally)  different 
from  what  they  are  at  other  times,  and  on  ordinary  occa- 
sions. This  difference  does  not  consist  merely  in  the  pecu- 
liar solemnity  and  fervour  of  manner  (which  they  possess), 
but  their  whole  deportment  gives  an  impression,  not  to  be 
conveyed  in  words,  that  their  organs  are  made  use  of  by 
supernatural  power.  In  addition  to  the  outward  appear- 
ances, their  own  declarations,  as  the  declarations  of  honest, 
pious,  and  sober  individuals,  may  with  propriety  be  taken 
in  evidence.  They  declare  that  their  organs  of  speech  are 
made  use  of  by  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  and  that  they  utter  that 
which  is  given  to  them,  and  not  the  expressions  of  their 
own  conceptions,  or  their  own  intention.  I  had  numerous 
opportunities  of  observing  a  variety  of  facts  fully  confirma- 
tory of  this. 

"  In  addition  to  what  I  have  already  stated,  I  have  only  to 
add  my  most  decided  testimony,  that,  so  far  as  three  weeks' 
constant  communication,  and  the  information  of  those  in  the 
neighbourhood,  can  enable  me  to  judge  (and  I  conceive  that 
the  opportunities  I  enjoyed  enabled  me  to  form  a  correct 
judgment),  the  individuals  thus  gifted  are  persons  living  in 
close  communion  with  God,  and  in  love  towards  Him  and 
towards  all  men ;  abounding  in  faith  and  joy  and  peace ; 
having  an  abhorrence  of  sin,  and  a  thirst  for  holiness,  with  an 
abasement  of  self,  and  yet  with  a  hope  full  of  immortality 
such  as  I  never  witnessed  elsewhere,  and  which  I  find  no- 
where recorded  but  in  the  history  of  the  early  church  : 
and  just  as  they  are  fervent  in  spirit,  so  are  they  diligent  in 
the  performance  of  all  the  relative  duties  of  life.  They  are 
totally  devoid  of  anything  like  fanaticism  or  enthusiasm, 
but  on  the  contrary  are  persons  of  great  simplicity  of  char- 


mt.  42.  CAPTAIN  PA  PERSON.  135 


acter  and  of  sound  common  sense.  They  have  no  fanciful 
theology  of  their  own :  they  make  no  pretensions  to  deep 
knowledge  :  they  are  the  very  opposite  of  sectarians,  both 
in  conduct  and  principle  :  they  do  not  assume  to  he  teachers : 
they  are  not  deejily  read,  but  they  seek  to  be  taught  of  God 
in  the  perusal  of  and  meditation  on  his  revealed  Word,  and 
to  '  live  quiet  and  peaceable  lives  in  all  godliness  and 
honesty.'"1 

Mr.  'Erskine  followed  in  the  track  of  these  delegates  from 
London,  staying  no  less  than  six  weeks  in  the  house  of  the 
Macdonalds,  witnessing  the  manifestations  and  taking  part 
in  the  daily  prayer-meetings.  A  misrepresenting  rumour 
as  to  what  had  happened  at  one  of  these  meetings  having 
reached  his  ears,  he  sent  the  following  letter  to  his 
brother-in-law  : — 

50.    TO  CAPTAIN  PATERSON. 

9  Brandon  Street,  \5th  October  1830. 

The  account  given  by  Mr.  C.  of  the  praj^er-meeting  at 
Port-Glasgow  during  which  the  words  disco  capito  were  used 
and  interpreted  is  very  incorrect. 

The  facts,  as  far  as  I  can  recollect,  are  these  : — I  had  been 
present  along  with  you  at  one  of  these  meetings  before,  and 
we  had  been  both  much  impressed  with  the  supernatural 
character  of  the  prayers  as  well  as  of  the  speaking  with 
tongues.  In  conversing  on  the  subject  next  day,  you  re- 
marked to  me  that  there  had  been,  on  the  preceding  even- 
ing, a  neglect  of  the  Scripture  directions  for  the  exercise  of 
the  gift  of  tongues,  and  in  proof  of  it  you  pointed  out  the 
rule,  1  Cor.  xiv.  28,  "If  there  be  no  interpreter,  let  him 
keep  silence  in  the  church." 

When  I  returned  to  Port-Glasgow  I  mentioned  this  to 
them,  and  their  answer  was  that  as  interpretation  had  in 
1  Norton's  Memoirs,  pp.  146-148. 


136  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1S30. 

some  cases  been  given,  they  considered  themselves  per- 
mitted to  use  the  tongue  when  the  Spirit  gave  them  utter- 
ance, on  the  faith  that  interpretation  would  also  be  given. 
They  said  also  that  they  felt  it  to  be  their  duty  to  pray 
much  for  interpretation,  according  to  that  word,  "  Let  him 
that  speaketh  in  a  tongue  pray  that  he  may  interpret." 
Just  before  the  meeting  commenced  we  were  conversing 
on  this  subject,  so  that  it  was  impressed  on  the  minds  of 
those  persons  who  spoke  in  prayer. 

It  was  a  very  remarkable  meeting.  There  was  a  mani- 
festation of  the  presence  and  supernatural  working  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  beyond  anything  that  I  had  witnessed.  The 
voices  struck  me  also  very  much,  perhaps  more  than  the 
tongues.  It  was  not  their  loudness,  although  they  were 
very  loud,  but  they  did  not  sound  to  me  as  if  they  were  the 
voices  of  the  persons  speaking ;  they  seemed  to  be  uttered 
through  them  by  another  power. 

After  J.  Macdonald  had  prayed  a  considerable  time,  first 
in  English  and  then  in  a  tongue,  the  command  to  pray  for 
interpretation  was  brought  to  his  mind,  and  he  repeated — 
"  It  is  written, '  Let  him  that  speaketh  in  a  tongue  pray  that 
he  may  interpret.' "  He  then  prayed  for  interpretation  with 
great  urgency,  until  he  felt  that  he  had  secured  the  answer 
and  when  repeating  over  the  concluding  words  of  what  he 
had  spoken  in  the  tongue,  which  were  "disco  capito,"  he 
said,  "  And  this  is  the  interpretation :  the  shout  of  a  King 
is  amongst  them."  The  impression  which  I  received  from 
this  was,  that  the  passage  spoken  in  the  tongue  had  con- 
cluded with  the  prophecy  of  Balaam,  in  which  these  words 
occur.  I  conceived  that  the  words  disco  capito  meant 
simply  the  shout  of  a  King,  and  that  they,  along  with  their 
interpretation,  had  been  given  to  us  as  words  of  reference, 
directing  us  to  the  beautiful  passage  of  which  they  form  a 
part,  Numbers  xxiii.  19,  20,  21. 


jet.  42.  CAPTAIN  PATERSON.  137 


I  am  quite  sensible,  as  you  must  be  after  what  you  have 
witnessed,  that  it  is  impossible  to  convey  in  words  any  idea 
of  what  took  place  that  evening.  Though  there  had  been 
no  new  tongue  spoken,  the  supernatural  character  of  the 
meeting  would  have  been  just  the  same;  the  tongues  scarcely 
added  to  it  at  all. 

Some  time  after,  in  conversing  over  the  proceedings  of 
the  evening  with  one  of  the  Macdonalds,  I  remarked  to 
him  that  I  had  observed  after  the  conclusion  of  the  meeting 
two  of  the  females  apparently  in  great  joy  embracing  each 
other,  and  I  asked  him  if  he  knew  any  particular  cause  for 
it.  He  told  me  that  for  some  days  back  their  meetings  had 
been  remarkably  dead,  and  thus  there  had  been  a  great 
deal  of  prayer  on  the  subject,  and  that  these  two  persons 
had,  especially  in  the  forenoon,  been  much  engaged  in  prayer 
together  about  it,  and  that  the  outpouring  which  had  taken 
place  that  night  bore  to  them  a  more  decided  character  of 
being  an  answer  to  prayer,  inasmuch  as  they  had  particu- 
larly asked  of  God  "  that  the  shout  of  a  King  might  once 
more  be  amongst  them."  One  of  these  females  was  his 
own  sister. 

He  did  not  tell  me  this  of  himself.  I  asked  him  the 
explanation  of  the  circumstance  I  have  mentioned,  which 
was  of  the  most  unobtrusive  nature  possible,  and  which 
indeed  was  done  in  a  corner,  and  he  answered  me  most 
simply ;  and  I  felt  my  own  astonishment  not  a  little  re- 
buked by  his  quiet  reception  of  this  direct  and  literal 
answer  to  prayer,  as  a  thing  to  be  at  all  times  confidently 
looked  for. 

I  gave  this  history  in  Mr.  C.'s  hearing,  explaining  at  the 
same  time  my  reason  for  doing  so,  viz.,  I  thought  that  those 
who  recognised  the  moral  integrity  of  the  parties  would 
in  this  remarkable  coincidence  recognise  something  super- 
natural, and  that  those  who  had  formed  no  opinion  as  to 


138  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1831. 


their  integrity,  either  on  one  side  or  another,  would  from  this 
case  feel  that  the  charge  of  imposture  against  them  involved 
in  it  the  charge  of  such  a  multiplication  of  fraud  and  of  blas- 
phemous lying  against  the  Holy  Ghost  that  it  was  really 
difficult  to  believe  that  any  creatures  could  be  so  abandoned 
as  to  be  guilty  of  it. 

There  are  some  things  so  bad  that  one  would  require 
tolerably  strong  evidence  for  their  authenticity  before 
believing  them.     And  surely  this  is  one. 

Mr.  Erskine's  immediate  convictions  and  impressions 
were  embodied  in  a  tract,  "  On  the  Gifts  of  the  Spirit," 
published  at  Greenock  at  the  close  of  1830.  "Whilst 
I  see  nothing  in  Scripture  against  the  reappearance,  or 
rather  the  continuance,  of  miraculous  gifts  in  the  Church, 
but  a  great  deal  for  it,  I  must  further  say  that  I  see  a 
treat  deal  of  internal  evidence  in  the  west  country  to 
prove  their  genuine  miraculous  character,  especially  in  the 
speaking  with  tongues.  .  .  .  After  witnessing  what  I 
have  witnessed  among  those  people,  I  cannot  think  of  any 
person  decidedly  condemning  them  as  impostors,  without 
a  feeling  of  great  alarm.  It  certainly  is  not  a  thing  to  be 
lightly  or  rashly  believed,  but  neither  is  it  a  thing  to 
be  lightly  or  rashly  rejected.     I  believe  that  it  is  of  God." 

Still  more  fully  did  Mr.  Erskine  deal  with  the  whole 
topic  of  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit  in  the  volume  published  in 
1831,  entitled  "  The  Brazen  Serpent,  or  Life  coming 
through  Death  : "  not  the  most  popular  of  his  writings, 
yet  the  one  which  goes  most  fully  and  deeply  into  doctrinal 
theolooy.  It  was  to  this  book,  even  more  than  to  the  one 
on  "  The  Unconditional  Freeness  of  the  Gospel,"  that  Mr. 
Maurice  was  in  the  habit  of  expressing  his  indebtedness. 
In  its  second  chapter  will  be  found  the  seeds  of  many  of 
those  ideas  as  to  the  moral  character  of  the  atonement,  and 


MT.  43.  DR.    CHALMERS.  139 


the  manner  of  its  operation  in  the  formation  of  Christian 
character,  which,  transplanted  to  other  soil  and  subject  to 
other  treatment,  germinated  after  fashions  not  altogether 
such  as  the  first  sower  relished.  In  this  volume,  after 
stating  at  length  the  scriptural  grounds  on  which  it  might 
be  concluded  that  the  miraculous  gifts  were  "the  permanent 
endowment  of  the  Church,"  and  that  "  had  the  faith  of  the 
Church  continued  pure  and  full  these  gifts  of  the  Spirit 
would  never  have  disappeared,"  he  says,  "  The  world  dis- 
likes the  recurrence  of  miracles.  And  yet  it  is  true  that 
miracles  have  recurred.  I  cannot  but  tell  what  I  have 
seen  and  heard.  I  have  heard  persons,  both  men  and 
women,  speak  with  tongues  and  prophesy,  that  is,  speak 
in  the  spirit  to  edification,  exhortation,  and  comfort."1 

In  1832  his  faith  in  the  reality  of  some  at  least  of  the 
Port-Glasgow  manifestations  remained  unshaken,  as  appears 
from  the  following  letter  to  Dr.  Chalmers  : — 

5  1 .    TO  DR.  CHALMERS. 

24  Drummond  Place,  May  1S32. 

Dear  Sir, —  .  .  .  Feeling  as  I  do  the  vast  importance  of 
the  subject  of  our  conversation  the  other  evening,  I  cannot 
go  through  the  common  form  of  forwarding  you  this  note 
without  referring  you  to  some  of  the  passages  of  Scripture 
at  least  which  belong  to  that  subject. 

Our  Lord  is  especially  designated  by  all  the  Evangelists 
as  "  He  who  baptizeth  with  the  Holy  Ghost."  Compare 
this  title  with  Acts  i.  4-8,  that  you  may  be  convinced  that 
the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  does  not  mean  regeneration, 
but  that  which  was  manifested  on  the  day  of  Pentecost — 
for  the  disciples  were  already  regenerate  persons.  Com- 
pare it  also  with  Ephesians  iv.  8-16,  where  the  purpose  of 
the  gifts  is  declared  to  be — not  to  give  a  miraculous  attes- 
1  The  Brazen  Serpent,  p.  203.     See  Appendix,  No.  II. 


140  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1832. 

tation  to  the  doctrines,  but — to  edify  the  body  and  pre- 
serve unity,  and  the  duration  of  them  is  declared  to  be 
"  until  we  all  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith  and  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  perfect  man,  unto 
the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ."  You 
yourself  remarked  that  evening  that  the  promise  of  the 
Spirit  was  prominently  held  forth  through  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  the  great  characteristic  and  privilege  of  our  dis- 
pensation, as  in  Mark  xvi.  17,  and  that  this  promise  is 
never  recalled,  nor,  I  may  add,  is  any  cessation  of  it  hinted 
at,  except  in  1  Cor.  xiii.  8-10,  where  these  gifts  are  promised 
to  endure  until  that  which  is  perfect  is  come. 

You  said  that  the  sanctification  of  the  heart  is  a  greater 
manifestation  of  the  power  of  the  Spirit  in  man  than  any 
miracles.  To  this  I  cordially  agree.  "The  greatest  of 
these  is  charity, — the  more  excellent  way;"  but  the  gifts 
are  not  reckoned  of  as  substitutes  for  that  chief  end,  but 
as  means  to  it.  And  if  the  Lord  gives  these  things  as 
means,  surely  it  is  not  a  genuine  humility  which  says,  "  I 
am  satisfied  without  them."  When  the  Lord  desired  Ahaz 
to  ask  a  sign,  he  answered,  "  I  will  not  ask,  neither  will  I 
tempt  the  Lord,"  but  he  is  severely  rebuked  for  this  appa- 
rent humility,  Isaiah  vii.  12,  13. 

The  14th  and  15th  verses  of  the  fourth  chapter  of 
Ephesians  are  very  remarkable.  One  of  the  objects  to  be 
answered  by  the  setting  of  the  gifts  in  the  Church  is  there 
said  to  be,  "  that  we  henceforth  be  no  more  children  tossed 
to  and  fro,  and  carried  about  with  every  wind  of  doctrine, 
by  the  sleight  of  men,  and  cunning  craftiness,  whereby  they 
lie  in  wait  to  deceive ;  but,  speaking  the  truth  in  love,  may 
grow  up  into  Him  in  all  things,  which  is  the  Head,  even 
Christ."  There  must  be  some  principle  of  unity  in  a  church, 
in  order  to  the  existence  of  a  church.  God's  scheme  for 
this  unity  is  the  manifestation  of  the  gifts ;  man's  scheme 


/EX.  43.  THE  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  141 

in  the  absence  of  the  gifts  is  a  Confession  of  Faith.  We 
must  either  have  the  one  or  the  other  in  order  to  keep  the 
Church  together.  Now,  is  it  the  sin  of  the  Church,  or 
only  her  misfortune,  that  she  is  without  the  gifts,  and 
therefore  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  a  Confession  for  the 
purpose  of  unity?  Surely  the  Westminster  divines  did 
not  exhaust  the  Bible  ;  and  if  they  had  the  Spirit,  surely 
the  divines  of  our  day  are  not  excluded  from  the  Spirit, 
and  if  so,  they  ought  to  thank  God  for  what  light  was 
seen  before,  and  press  on  to  further  light  in  the  strength 
of  the  Spirit.  If  it  be  the  sin  of  the  Church  to  be  without 
the  gifts,  then  the  necessity  of  the  Confession  is  a  sinful 
necessity,  and  ought  not  to  be  pleaded  against  any  man  who 
appeals  to  the  Word  and  the  interpretation  of  the  Spirit. 

I  pray  you  to  forgive  this  letter,  if  you  think  that  it 
needs  forgiveness.  It  is  the  principle  in  the  Scripture 
that  I  press,  not  the  particular  instances,  though  I  have 
the  fullest  conviction  of  the  reality  of  several  of  them. 

Again  I  say,  forgive  what  seems  to  you  to  need  forgive- 
ness in  this  letter,  and  believe  me  to  be,  with  true  respect 
and  affection,  yours  sincerely,  T.  Erskine. 

The  chief  theatre  of  the  supernatural  manifestations 
had  by  this  time  shifted  from  the  west  of  Scotland  to 
London.  With  the  change  of  place  there  came  a  change  of 
their  phase  and  office.  They  were  no  longer  regarded,  as  at 
the  first,  simply  or  mainly  as  supernatural  exhibitions  of  the 
Divine  presence,  expressions  of  the  Divine  will,  intended  to 
infuse  fresh  life  and  fervour  into  the  faith  and  worship  of 
the  Church.  To  quote  from  a  book  of  much  ability,  held 
in  high  repute  among  the  members  of  the  Holy  Catholic 
Apostolic  Church  : — "  By  repeated  words  it  was  gradually 
made  clear  that  what  the  Lord  meant  to  show  was  that  the 
only  remedy  for  the  evil  condition  of  the  Church  universal, 


142  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1833. 


which  we  had  so  much  lamented,  was  the  restoration  of  the 
form  and  order  of  the  Christian  Church  as  one  body,  as 
originally  constituted,  with  the  ordinances  of  that  body, — 
the  long-lost  means  of  unity  and  channels  of  truth,  viz., 
apostles,  prophets,  evangelists,  and  pastors."1  Slowly, 
out  of  that  strange  confusion  which  disturbed  at  first 
the  worship  of  the  church  in  Regent  Square,  at  com- 
mand of  those  strange  voices  before  which  the  grand 
humble  heroic  spirit  of  Edward  Irving  bowed  and  was 
broken,  the  form  and  order  of  the  Holy  Catholic 
Apostolic  Church  arose — a  Church  eclectic  in  doctrine, 
charitable  in  spirit,  devout  in  worship,  utterly  refusing  to 
be  called  a  new  branch  or  sect,  yet  claiming  to  be  the  one 
and  only  existing  Christian  society  fashioned  in  all  respects 
after  that  perfect  model  said  to  be  set  up  in  the  Jewish 
Tabernacle  and  the  Apostolic  Constitutions.  This  was  not 
"  the  healing  of  the  hurt "  which  Mr.  Erskine  had  been 
looking  for  with  such  intense  anxiety  and  eager  hope. 
And  the  more  that  this  new  remedy  revealed  of  its  character 
and  the  manner  of  its  working,  the  more  inclined  was  he 
to  doubt  and  distrust  its  efficacy. 

It  is  evident  from  the  following  letters  to  Lady  Elgin, 
who  became  a  member  of  the  new  society,  that  already  in 
the  spring  of  1833  he  had  detected  what  appeared  to 
him  a  fatal  flaw  in  that  society.  At  the  same  time  his 
confidence  in  the  heavenly  origin  of  the  gifts  was  other- 
wise shaken,  so  that  before  the  end  of  that  year  he  had  to 
announce  to  his  dear  cousin  Eachel  a  change  of  belief 
regarding  them. 

52.  TO  LADY  ELGIN. 

Edinburgh,  Saturday. 
Dear  Lady  Elgin, — The  distinction  which  Mr.  Bruce 

1  The  Purpose  of  God  in  Creation  and  Redemption,  p.  163. 


/T.T.   44. 


LADY  ELGIN.  143 


draws  between  a  dispensation  of  principles  and  a  dispen- 
sation of  statutes  is  exactly  the  distinction  which  I  was 
desirous  of  pointing  out  to  you  as  existing  between  the 
dispensation  of  Christ  and  the  dispensation  of  ayyekoi 
(Hebrews  i.  and  ii.)  The  dispensation  of  Christ  embraces 
in  it  a  oneness  with  the  mind  of  God — not  merely  a 
readiness  to  do  His  will  when  we  know  it,  but  a  participa- 
tion in  His.  mind,  so  that,  by  a  participation  in  the  Divine 
nature,  we  enter  into  the  reasons  of  His  will,  and  do  not 
merely  obey  the  authority  of  His  will.  If  I  had  a  person 
living  in  the  house  with  me,  so  gifted  by  God  that,  when 
he  was  asked  whether  the  will  of  God  were  so  or  so  in  any 
case,  he  always  returned  an  answer  of  truth  in  the  power 
of  the  Spirit,  I  should  in  such  circumstances  have  it  always 
in  my  power  to  know  the  will  of  God,  and  I  might  con- 
tinually obey  it  in  the  spirit  of  ready  submission  ;  and 
yet  I  should  be  living  in  the  low  dispensation  of  angels 
or  statutes,  and  out  of  the  dispensation  of  the  Son  or  of 
principles,  if  this  were  my  only  way  of  learning  the  will 
of  God.  And  if  I  were  without  this  apparent  privilege, 
and  though  I  often  mistook  the  will  of  God,  yet  if  my 
imperfect  and  defective  knowledge  and  obedience  arose 
from  an  inward  light,  by  which  I  saw  the  rightness  of  a 
thing  as  God  sees  it,  then,  though  my  outward  manifesta- 
tion of  God  would  be  much  less  in  this  case  than  in  the 
former,  yet  my  real  manifestation  of  Him  would  be 
much  greater,  and  I  should  be  living  in  the  dispensation 
of  the  Son  and  of  principle,  and  not  of  messengers  and  of 
statutes.  . 

There  is  an  expression  which  I  have  been  in  the  use  ^v 
of  applying  to  the  Christian  religion,  which  corresponds 
exactly  to  this  distinction  of  principles  and  statutes,  viz., 
that  it  is  a  religion  of  centres,  and  not  of  circumferences. 
There  is  a  seed  of  God  in  the  man,  which  he  may  cultivate 


144  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1833. 

or  neglect.  It  is  manifest  that  if  I  were  living  with  such 
an  oracular  person  as  I  have  supposed,  I  should  just  be  in 
the  condition  of  the  Jews  with  regard  to  Moses.  Moses 
had  met  God,  and  they  met  Moses.  I  should  be  living 
under  a  messenger  certified  by  God.  I  should  have  my 
circumference  determined  for  me,  and  nothing  would  be 
left  for  my  own  perception. 

In  one  of  my  letters  to  you,  I  remember  applying  this 
doctrine  of  principles  and  statutes  to  the  two  degrees  of 
conscience.  I  think  perhaps  you  may  now  see  better  what 
I  meant  by  it ;  and  by  the  remarks  which  I  made  on  the 
two  first  chapters  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  The 
second  degree  of  conscience  is  the  real  freeness  of  the  will; 
for  "  if  the  Son  make  you  free,  you  are  free  indeed." 

53.  TO  LADY  ELGIN. 

Lixlathen,  19</t  April. 

Dear  Lady  Elgin, —  ...  I  may  here  mention  what 
has  struck  me  as  to  the  nature  of  miraculous  works  gen- 
erally. Look  into  the  4th  of  Exodus,  and  read  there  the 
account  of  the  two  first  signs  of  which  there  is  any  record  : 
— Moses'  hand  becoming  leprous  and  then  being  cleansed, 
and  his  rod  becoming  a  serpent  and  then  returning  into  the 
form  of  a  rod.  In  these  two  signs  we  have  the  history 
and  the  prophecy  of  the  world  : — 1st,  human  flesh  to  be 
sown  in  corruption,  and  to  be  raised  in  incorruption — that 
is,  the  fall  and  the  glorious  restoration  of  man's  nature  , 
and  2d,  the  serpent  gaining  a  terrible  dominion  over  man, 
and  then  being  overcome  by  man's  hand.  The  prophetic 
part  of  these  facts  is  that  which  I  believe  constitutes  the 
true  character  of  a  sign,  and  that  part  is  the  cleansing  of 
the  flesh  and  the  paralysing  of  the  serpent.  We  have  here 
the  signs  of  Christ's  kingdom — in  the  purity  of  the  resur- 
rection-body, and  in  the  binding  of  Satan.     Compare  the 


alt.  44.  LADY  ELGIN.  145 

wondrous  works  of  our  Lord  whilst  on  earth  with  these 
two.  The  fulfilment  in  reality  of  these  two  signs  will  be 
the  realising  of  the  24  th  and  8th  Psalms.  I  have  mis- 
placed them,  for  the  serpent  precedes  the  leprosy  in  the 
history,  and  it  does  so  as  the  cause  precedes  the  effect. 
These  signs  were  types  and  prophecies  of  the  kingdom, 
just  as  the  sacrifices  of  the  law  were  types  and  prophecies 
of  the  atonement.  The  miracles,  as  well  as  the  sacrifices, 
are  never  final  things  ;  they  do  not  terminate  in  themselves ; 
they  are  signs  of  the  kingdom.  They  are  signs  of  that  of 
which  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost 
are  the  reality.  The  attestation  which  they  gave  to  God's 
messengers  was  that  these  messengers  bore  a  message  re- 
lating to  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom.  The  raising 
of  a  dead  man  to  life,  if  that  man  was  to  die  again,  was 
nothing  at  all  to  our  intelligence  except  as  a  sign  of  per- 
manent resurrection ;  and  so  the  cure  of  sickness,  etc. 
We  are  not  to  look  for  permanent  cures  then,  or  perfect 
cures,  or  cures  in  every  case  where  they  may  be  asked ; 
their  very  nature  as  signs  is  inconsistent  with  this.  In 
this  day  of  grace  the  power  of  God's  kingdom  as  manifested 
comes  forth  merely  in  signs  ;  the  real  work  of  the  day  of 
grace  is  the  spiritual  cleansing — the  kingdom  of  God  within 
us.  The  sign  refers  us  always  to  the  coming  kingdom,  and 
thus  any  resting  in  the  sign  is  a  refusing  of  its  true  import. 
Holiness  and  love  are  no  signs ;  they  are  the  things  them- 
selves ;  they  are  the  actual  workings  of  that  kingdom  of 
which  healings,  etc.,  are  the  signs.  The  Sabbath  was  a 
prophetic  sign  of  the  coming  Rest,  and  most  of  our  Lord's 
wondrous  works  were  done  on  that  day  to  connect  them 
with  the  same  thing.  His  answer  to  John's  disciples  in  the 
7th  of  Luke,  compared  with  Isaiah  xxxv.  5,  is  very  instruc- 
tive. The  prophecy  was  not  then  fulfilled,  but  there  was 
a  sign  of  its  fulfilment  given.      This  is  an  explanation  to 

K 


146  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKtNE.  1S33 

my  mind  of  many  disappointments  in  the  expectation  of 
restoration  of  sick  and  dying  persons.  God  would  say  to 
us,  "  The  real  miracle  does  not  consist  in  patching  up  the 
old  vessel,  but  in  making  it  a  new  vessel ;  the  patching  up 
of  the  old  vessel  is  but  a  sign,  a  prophetic  sign,  of  the  new 
creation.  Don't  lay  such  a  stress  upon  the  sign  ;  you  shall 
have  the  real  everlasting  cleansing  of  the  leprosy."  The 
dealings  of  God  through  Moses  with  Israel  are  a  wonderful 
series  of  signs ;  they  are  the  pattern  of  the  heavenly  real 
things.  When  Moses  held  the  rod  over  the  Eed  Sea,  he 
was  the  sign  of  man  holding  up  the  serpent  in  triumph  to 
the  view  of  the  creation,  and  in  right  of  his  victory 
exercising  dominion,  long  lost  but  now  recovered.  That 
is  still  a  prophecy.  The  final  restoration  is  the  purpose  of 
Wisdom,  and  whatever  be  the  means  employed  by  the 
wisdom  of  God,  this  purpose  of  His  wisdom  is  recognised 
by  all  her  children  :  Wisdom  is  justified  of  her  children. 
The  power  by  which  this  is  now  carrying  forward  is  the 
spirit  of  Christ  in  man's  heart.  This  is  the  true  preparation 
for  the  cleansing  of  the  leprosy  and  the  binding  of  Satan : 
and  the  signs  are  prophetic  pictures  to  animate  hope,  and 
to  indicate  at  the  same  time  the  actual  presence  and  real- 
ity of  that  power  which  on  the  day  of  manifestation,  when 
all  things  are  ready,  will  come  forth,  not  in  signs  but  in 
permanent  realities.  I  am  happy  you  sent  that  letter  to 
Lady  Matilda.  Any  letter  I  send  you,  and  which  you 
think  would  interest  her,  you  may  most  freely  send  to  her. 
I  appreciate  your  scrupulousness  on  that  matter. 

It  is  written,  "  Whosoever  will  do  the  will  of  God  shall 
know  of  the  doctrine  whether  it  be  of  God."  This  is  the 
casting  down  of  man's  pride  of  independence ;  it  is  the 
same  thing  as  that  word,  "  I  thank  thee,  0  Father,  Lord 
of  heaven  and  earth,  that  Thou  hast  hid  these  things  from 
the  wise  and  prudent,  and  hast  revealed  them  unto  babes." 


XT.  44.  LADY  ELGIN.  147 

It  is  with  the  heart  that  man  believeth  unto  righteousness. 
Let  us  remember  these  things,  and  receive  them  as  the 
wisdom  and  love  of  God  to  our  souls.  We  are  to  receive 
nothing  about  God  at  second-hand.  The  serpent  seduced 
man  to  go  out  of  the  limits  of  God's  will  in  search  of 
knowledge,  and  God  would  have  us  to  know  that  it  is  only 
within  those  limits  that  we  can  have  any  true  knowledge. 
We  are  creatures,  and  not  independent. 

I  am  happy  to  hear  that  your  son's  indisposition  is  re- 
moving. I  can  easily  understand,  from  a  few  words  which 
dropped  from  you  incidentally  as  you  were  mentioning 
some  conversation  which  had  passed  between  you  and  him, 
that  the  relation  in  which  you  stand  to  each  other  is  not 
common.  An  honest,  unfettered,  confiding  intercourse  be- 
tween mother  and  son,  on  the  great  interests  of  man,  is  a 
blessing  enjoyed  by  few  mothers  and  few  sons. 

54.    TO  LADY  ELGIN. 

Linlathen,  16//t  May  1833. 
Dear  Lady  Elgin, — There  is  a  particular  application 
of  that  subject  on  which  I  have  written  to  you,  which  I 
wish  to  draw  your  attention  to.  The  healing  of  diseases, 
whether  by  the  manifest  immediate  agency  of  God,  or  by 
what  we  call  natural  means,  is  simply  a  sign  of  resurrection 
to  come,  and  it  is  given  not  to  rest  in,  but  to  nourish  faith 
and  hope ;  not  to  give  a  satisfaction  in  the  flesh,  but  to 
give  an  encouragement  to  crucify  the  flesh  now,  through 
confidence  in  God,  who  by  this  sign  shows  His  will  and 
power  to  raise  up  in  incorruptible  immortality  the  flesh 
which  has  thus  been  willingly  crucified  during  the  day  of 
grace.  We  all  feel  that  we  need  a  deliverance,  and  the 
flesh  calls  for  it  immediately,  Avhilst  those  who  walk  in  the 
Spirit  wait  for  the  hope  of  righteousness.  Thus  the  flesh 
would  always  convert  the  sign  into  the  permanent  miracle; 


148  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1833. 


it  cannot  receive  the  truth  that  the  promised  deliverance  is 
through  blood,  that  is,  through  death.  Our  true  deliver- 
ance is  on  the  other  side  of  death,  and  we  must  pass 
through  death  to  get  it.  So  our  Deliverer  is  a  crucified 
and  risen  man,  and  it  is  by  this  way  that  He  leads  many 
sons  to  glory.  He  is  the  way,  and  those  who  abide  in  Him 
are  those  who  are  dying  daily  to  the  flesh  and  present 
things,  in  the  hope  of  the  future  glory,  and  in  the  sense  of 
the  righteousness  of  the  condemnation  which  is  laid  upon 
the  flesh — the  idolatrous  flesh.  Every  acting  of  the  flesh 
is  a  seeking  of  gratification  to  itself  on  this  side  of  death ; 
it  ma}'  acknowledge  God  as  the  giver  of  its  happiness,  or 
the  guard  of  its  happiness,  but  God  is  not  its  happiness 
Himself;  as  a  man  may  look  to  the  police  of  the  town  in 
which  he  lives  as  the  proteetor  of  his  happiness,  but  he  has 
no  happiness  in  the  poliee ;  he  would  be  happy  to  be  able 
to  do  without  it.  This  is  idolatry;  for  that  which  is  our 
happiness  is  really  our  God.  And  this  will  be  the  natural 
acting  of  the  flesh  until  it  is  raised  up  a  spiritual  body. 
And  therefore  the  life  of  holiness  here  is  a  life  of  hope  of 
a  future  glory,  a  righteous  kingdom  to  come,  detaching  us 
from  the  actings  of  the  flesh  and  the  power  of  seen  things, 
and  thus,  by  making  us  partakers  of  Christ's  cross,  fitting 
us  to  be  partakers  of  His  glory. 

Whenever  we  think  that  we  may  innocently  and  safely 
take  the  natural  desires  for  our  guide,  whenever  we  think 
that  we  may  without  sin  and  danger  make  the  present 
gratification  of  the  flesh  our  object,  we  are  receiving  that 
error  which  is  condemned  in  2  Timothy  ii.  1 8,  "  saying 
that  the  resurrection  is  past  already."  Read  the  whole 
chapter  carefully,  and  you  will  see  that  this  is  the  spirit 
of  it :  it  is  not  until  the  resurrection  is  really  past,  and 
these  bodies  have  ceased  to  be  bodies  of  sin  and  death,  that 
we  can  safely  cease  from  living  by  hope  of  good  things  to 


JET.  44.  LADY  ELGIN.  149 

come,  and  from  crucifying  the  flesh  through  that  hope.  The 
condition  of  all  men  is  represented  by  the  two  thieves  who 
were  crucified  with  Jesus,  for  all  are  upon  the  cross  in  one 
way  or  other — pain,  anxiety,  doubt,  etc.  etc. — and  all  men 
desire  a  deliverance ;  but  some  insist  upon  it  now,  others 
are  content  to  wait :  those  who  live  in  the  flesh  will  have 
it  immediately, — "  If  thou  be  the  Christ,  save  thyself  and 
us."  They  have  little  taste  for  a  crucified  Saviour ;  for 
they  think  as  the  priests  did,  "  If  thou  be  the  king  of  Israel, 
come  down  from  the  cross."  They  do  not  wish  to  be  de- 
livered from  sin,  they  wish  to  be  delivered  only  from  the 
cross.  But  the  other  thief  did  not  ask  to  be  taken  down 
from  the  cross ;  he  felt  the  righteousness  of  the  punish- 
ment :  "  We  indeed  justly,  for  we  receive  the  due  reward 
of  our  deeds;  but  this  man  hath  done  nothing  amiss;" 
and  he  was  content  to  wait  for  deliverance  until  the  coming 
of  Christ's  Kingdom, — "  Lord,  remember  me  when  Thou 
comest  in  Thy  kingdom."  He  made  up  his  mind  that  he 
was  to  continue  on  the  cross  whilst  he  continued  in  the 
flesh ;  he  felt  that  it  was  righteous,  he  knew  that  it  was 
but  for  a  very  little  while,  and  he  saw  an  eternal  weight  of 
glory, — "joint  heirs  with  Christ,"  if  in  suffering,  so  also  in 
glory  (Luke  xxiii.  39-43,  Rom.  viii.  1 6-26).  Popish  penance 
is  the  mimicry  of  a  root-truth.  Look  at  the  1 3th  verse  of 
that  chapter.  It  is  through  the  Spirit  that  the  flesh  is 
to  be  crucified,  through  love  of  God  and  the  hope  of  His 
Kingdom.  .  .  . 

There  is  another  thing  which  I  may  mention  to  you.  I 
think  that  there  is  a  risk  sometimes  of  losing  hold  of  the 
great  principle  and  kernel  of  prophecy  through  occupation 
with  its  details,  although  the  opposite  evil  has  certainly 
been  the  prevalent  one  in  our  days.  Is  it  not  the  great 
object  of  prophecy  that,  through  faith  and  hope  of  the 
glory   of  God,   we  should   be   content   to   forego   present 


150  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1833. 


things,  and  enter  into  God's  plan  of  condemning  and  cruci- 
fying the  flesh  %  "  Heirs  of  God,  joint  heirs  with  Christ, 
if  so  be  that  we  suffer  with  Him,  that  we  may  also  be 
glorified  together,"  seems  to  me  the  kernel  of  prophecy, 
like  the  object  of  healings,  etc.  .  .  . 

The  object  of  prophecy  is  to  draw  our  view  forward  out 
of  seen  things  to  the  permanent  triumph  of  God's  righteous 
cause.  "What  I  meant  by  the  details  of  prophecy  is  rather 
when  the  prophecy  is  more  considered  than  the  thing  pro- 
phesied, as  when  the  sign  is  more  considered  than  the 
thing  signified.  I  feel  a  jealousy  of  the  Morning  Watch  in 
this  respect. 

55.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

Lixlathen,  Saturday,  2\st  Dec.  1833. ' 
Beloved  Friend, — My  mind  has  undergone  a  consider- 
able change  since  I  last  interchanged  thoughts  with  you. 
I  have  seen  reason  to  disbelieve  that  it  is  the  Spirit  of  God 

which  is  in  Mr. ,  and  I  do  not  feel  that  I  have  a 

stronger  reason  to  believe  that  it  is  in  others.  This  does 
not  change  my  mind  as  to  what  the  endowment  of  the 
Church  is,  if  she  had  faith,  but  it  changes  me  as  to  the 
present  estimate  that  I  form  of  her  condition.  God  is  our 
all,  and  having  God,  we  have  lost  nothing.  These  gifts 
are  but  signs  and  means  of  grace ;  they  are  not  grounds  of 
confidence  ;  they  are  not  necessarily  intercourse  with  God; 
they  are  not  holiness,  nor  love  nor  patience ;  they  are  not 
Jesus.  But  surely  they  shall  yet  appear,  when  God  has 
prepared  men  to  receive  them.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Scott  and 
Mrs.  Rich  are  here:  I  have  much  sympathy  with  much 
that  I  meet  in  them.  They  fear  that  the  outward  forms 
and  magnificent  utterances  have  that  in  them  from  which 
the  carnal  mind  draws  nourishment,  and  that  there  is  a 
temptation  to  put  these  things  between  God  and  the  soul, 


&T.  45-  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  151 


and  to  take  them  on  trust  that  they  are  of  God,  although 
the  hearer  himself  personally  may  not  be  conscious  of 
meeting  God  in  them.  The  truth  and  substance  of  religion 
is  the  spirit  of  Christ  manifested  in  the  heart,  and  con- 
sciously recognised  in  the  heart,  as  the  light  and  life  of 
God  communicated  to  us — the  conscious  possessing  within 
our  hearts  that  Seed  of  the  woman,  who  bruises  the  serpent's 
head,  and  to  whom  all  the  promises  of  God  are  made. 

You  know  that  Mr.  Scott  is  entirely  separated  from  Mr. 
Irving  and  his  church,1  believing  it,  as  I  understand,  to  be 
a  delusion  partly,  and  partly  a  spiritual  work  not  of  God. 
He  conceives  that  there  is  a  disposition  to  yield  to  spiritual 
influence,  as  in  animal  magnetism,  which  lays  one  open  to 
such  possession  :  but  don't  say  anything  in  his  name,  except 
that  he  is  separate  as  not  believing  it.  We  are  in  the 
midst  of  unexplained  things  ;  but  he  that  dwelleth  in  the 

1  Mr.  Seott  had  early  noticed  a  tendency  in  Mr.  Irving  with  which  he 
could  not  sympathise.  "  He  had  from  the  first,"  to  quote  Mr.  Scott's 
own  words,  "a  strength  of  ecclesiastical,  I  might  say  hierarchical,  feeling, 
impossible  with  my  convictions."  This  feeling  was  enlarged  and  deepened 
by  his  intercourse  with  several  of  the  most  eminent  of  the  High  Church 
clergy  in  London,  whose  sympathy  with  his  prophetical  views  increased 
their  attraction.  It  became  dominant,  and  embodied  itself  in  action  as  the 
new  Church  began  to  be  organised.  As  things  progressed  in  this  direction 
Mr.  Seott  stood  more  and  more  aloof,  doubting  lirst,  then  disapproving, 
till  the  divergence  between  the  two  friends  became  extreme.  To  both  this 
was  singularly  distressing.  Scott's  health  gave  way  under  it,  "  to  such  a 
degree,"  Mrs.  Scott  tell  us,  "that  Mr.  Irving  sent  for  me,  that  I  might  be 
the  bearer  of  the  earnest  expostulation  he  desired  to  send  to  his  dear  friend, 
and  at  the  same  time  save  him  the  greater  excitement  which  their  con- 
versation then  might  occasion.  It  was  the  most  solemn  interview  I  ever 
had  with  any  one,  and  in  binding  up  in  my  ovn  mind  all  that  he  desired 
me  to  be  the  messenger  of  to  my  husband  I  said,  '  You  believe  that 
organisation  produces  life  ;  Mr.  Scott  believes  that  life  alone  can  organise  : 
does  this  then  express  your  great  difference  ? '  He  assented.  After  an  hour's 
audience,  in  which  with  awful  but  affectionate  seriousness  he  stated  to  me 
what  were  my  husband's  heresies,  I  said,  '  It  is  very  clear  to  me  that  the 
antagonism  of  the  two  views  is  as  the  north  to  the  south  pole, — that  they 
are  totally  and  purely  opposite.'  He  said,  '  It  is  so.  Mr.  Scott  or  I  am  in 
dangerous  error.     The  end  will  show.'" 


152  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1834. 


secret  place  of  the  Most  High  shall  abide  under  the  shadow 
of  the  Almighty.  The  true  connection  of  man  with  the 
Spirit  of  God  is  seeking  to  know  and  do  His  will — "  Yea, 
rather,  blessed  are  they  that  know  the  will  of  God  and  do 
it."  I  cannot  believe  that  there  has  been  no  pouring  out 
of  the  Spirit  at  Port-Glasgow  and  in  London ;  but  I  feel 
that  I  have  to  wait  in  every  case  upon  the  Lord,  to  receive 
in  my  heart  directly  from  Himself  my  warrant  to  acknow- 
ledge anything  to  be  of  His  supernatural  acting,  and  I  have 
erred  in  not  waiting  for  this.  .  .  . 

56.    TO  LADY  ELGIN. 

Linlathen,  18th  March  1834. 
Dear  Lady  Elgin, — I  know  that  you  will  not  mis- 
interpret my  delay  in  answering  you.  I  have  often  wished 
to  do  it,  but  have  never  been  able ;  and  even  now,  I  do 
not  feel  that  I  am  sitting  down  to  answer  your  letter,  but 
rather  to  thank  you  for  it,  and  to  express  to  you  my  sense 
of  the  Christian  love  breathing  in  it.  I  cannot  answer  it, 
because,  as  I  have  not  in  me  a  light  which  confirms  it, 
so  neither  have  I  a  light  which  distinctly  condemns  it 
altogether — I  mean  as  to  its  recognition  of  the  church  in 
London  to  be  indeed  a  church  ordered  and  gifted  by  the 
Spirit ;  although  I  see  much  against  believing  it,  which  I 
shall  mention.  At  the  same  time,  my  conscience  responds 
fully  to  all  that  you  say  of  the  domestic  order  of  the 
families  of  that  church,  and  I  enter  into  the  distinction 
which  you  make  between  the  general  calls  to  general 
holiness  and  the  special  calls  to  the  detailed  duties  of  life 
connected  with  station  and  relation,  so  much  pressed  in 
that  church ;  and  I  do  feel  that  holiness  consists  in  hearing 
Christ,  and  following  Him  step  by  step  in  the  minutest 
part  of  the  minutest  duty,  and  in  acknowledging  an  ordin- 
ance of  Christ  in  all  the  natural  and  social  relations.    And 


jet.  45.  LADY  ELGIN. 


I  recognise  such  teaching  to  be  according  to  the  mind  oi 
God ;  and  where  I  see  the  teachers  of  such  things  teaching 
by  their  lives,  as  well  as  by  their  words,  I  feel  that  they 
possess  weighty  credentials.  And  I  feel  that  we  need  a 
church  so  ordered  by  the  Spirit,  and  that  we  have  it  not. 
But  even  were  all  the  teaching  that  came  out  from  that 
church  such  as  found  a  witness  in  my  conscience,  I  require, 
besides  that  witness  to  the  teaching,  an  equally  distinct 
witness  within  me  to  the  power  whose  utterances  they 
follow,  before  I  can  feel  myself  warranted  (or  rather  I 
should  say  capable)  to  receive  it  as  the  supernatural  power 
of  the  Spirit  of  God,  or  to  receive  its  ordering  as  the  order- 
ing of  God.  When  I  heard  of  the  second  mission  of 
Messrs.  Drummond,  Cardale,  Armstrong,  and  Thomson,  from 
London,  I  went  to  Edinburgh.  I  remained  there  Thursday 
and  Friday  last  week.  There  were  two  meetings  on 
Thursday  and  one  on  Friday.  Dr.  Thomson  came  down 
as  the  instructor  of  Mr.  Tait  and  his  people  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  church.  I  heard  him  speak  twice  in  the 
chapel,  besides  meeting  him  once  (unintentionally)  in 
private.  I  heard  Mr.  Armstrong  preach  once.  I  heard 
also  several  uttei-ances  through  Mr.  Cardale  and  Mr. 
Drummond,  which  were  very  striking,  and  to  which,  with 
two  exceptions,  my  conscience  witnessed  fully;  but  whether 
the  power  by  which  they  spoke  was  really  the  power  of 
God  or  not,  I  feel  myself  perfectly  incompetent  to  say.  I 
have  a  witness  within  me  which,  I  am  conscious,  tries 
truth  ;  but  I  do  not  know  a  Avitness  within  me  which  tries 
power.  I  have  once  already  yielded  myself  to  the  acknow- 
ledgment of  a  power,  mainly  on  the  credit  of  the  truth 
uttered  by  the  power,  and  I  have  felt  that  this  was  sin, 
and  that  it  was  laid  upon  me  to  take  nothing  as  of  God, 
except  from  Himself  and  in  His  own  light.  The  utterances 
were  very  sweet  and  pleasing,  even  in  rebuke,  especially 


154  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1834. 


through  Mr.  Drummond,  whose  finely  modulated  English 
voice  contrasted,  even  to  the  natural  man,  most  favourably 
with  the  harsh  and  distressing  sounds  which  I  have  heard 
in  that  chapel  before ;  but  the  shake  which  I  have  received 
on  this  matter  is,  I  find,  very  deep ;  or  rather  it  would  be 
a  truer  expression  of  my  feeling  to  say,  that  I  am  now 
convinced  that  I  never  did  actually  believe  it.     My  con- 
viction that  the  gifts  ought  to  be  in  the  church  is  not  in  the 
least  degree  touched  ;  but  a  faith  in  any  one  instance  of 
manifestation  which  I  have  witnessed,  like  the  faith  which 
I  have  in  the  righteousness  and  faithfulness  of  God,  I  am 
sure  I  have  not,  and  never  had,  as  far  as  I  can  judge  on 
looking  back — that  is,  the  only  true  faith,  even  "  the  sub- 
stance of  things  hoped  for."     I  think  that  I  mentioned  to 
Lady  Matilda  at  Cadder  the  circumstances  which  shook  me 
with  regard  to  the  Macdonalds  at  Port-Glasgow,  that  in 
two  instances  when  James  Macdonald  spoke  with  remark- 
able power,  a  power  acknowledged  by  all  the  other  gifted 
people  there,  I  discovered  the  seed  of  his  utterances  in  the 
newspapers.     He  had  read  there  a  foolish  rumour  about 
the  time  of  George  iv.'s  death,  that  the  Ministers  would 
probably  find  it  convenient  to  conceal  that  event  when  it 
took  place,  until  they  had  made  some  arrangements.     This 
had  remained  in  his  mind,  and  it  came  forth  at  last  as  an 
utterance  in    power,   but  wrapped   in  such   obscurity    of 
language  as  not  to  expose  it  to  direct  confutation  ;  but  on 
reading  the  paragraph  I  recognised  such  a  resemblance  that 
I  could  not  doubt  it,  and  I  put  it  to  him ;  and  although  he 
had  spoken  in  perfect  integrity  (of  that  I  have  no  doubt), 
yet  he  was  satisfied  that  my  conjecture  as  to  its  origin  was 
correct.     The  other  instance  was  a  prophetic  utterance  of 
a  war  in  the  north  of  Europe — the  language  taken  much 
from  the  11th  of  Daniel;  but  the  seed  of  it  also  was  a 
newspaper  paragraph.     I  thus  see  how  things  may  come 


.ST.  45.  LADY  ELGIX.  155 

into  the  mind  and  remain  there,  and  then  come  forth  as 
supernatural  utterances,  although  their  origin  be  quite 
natural.  James  Macdonald  could  not  say  that  he  was 
conscious  of  anything  in  these  two  utterances  distinguishing 
them  from  all  the  others ;  he  only  said  that  he  believed 
that  these  two  were  of  the  flesh.  Taplin  made  a  similar 
confession  on  being  reproved  through  Miss  Emily  Cardale 
for  having  rebuked  Mr.  Irving  in  an  utterance.  He 
acknowledged  that  he  was  wrong ;  and  yet  he  could  not 
say  where  the  difference  lay  between  that  utterance  and 
any  other.  Is  there  not  a  great  perplexity  in  all  this  1 
Does  the  control  of  a  church  solve  it  1 

"What  I  heard  from  Dr.  Thomson,  both  in  public  and 
private,  seemed  to  be  at  variance  with  all  that  I  know  and 
feel  of  the  first  elementary  principle  of  true  religion.  In 
his  zeal  for  a  church,  he  seemed  to  me  to  lose  sight  of  the 
individual  personality  of  that  intercourse  with  God  through 
His  Spirit  within  us,  which  is  the  basis,  and  the  only  basis, 
of  religion.  He  frequently  repeated  that  Christ  was  only 
to  be  met  with  in  the  church,  and  that  the  light  in  man 
only  answered  to  the  ministrations  of  the  ordained 
ministers  in  the  church.  I  know  that  this  is  not  so.  But 
if  it  were  so,  how  could  I  even  be  in  a  condition  to  discern 
the  true  church  1  They  say,  "  Come  into  the  church  and 
you  will  see."  The  first  step,  according  to  this  direction, 
must  be  made  in  the  dark.  The  first  step  is  a  petitio 
l>ri)icij>ii,  a  begging  the  question  ;  it  is  taking  for  granted 
the  very  thing  of  which  I  need  evidence  :  that  this  is  the 
true  church.  I  feel  the  desolateness  of  being  without  a 
church;  I  feel  the  weakness  and  meagreness,  and  selfishness 
and  speculativeness,  that  arise  from  our  isolated  condition: 
but  I  dare  take  nothing  for  granted  in  this  weighty  matter, 
and  I  feel  very  jealous  of  the  urgency  with  which  the 
teachers  of  that  church  cry  down  the  sovereignty  of  the. 


156  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKIXE.  1834. 

internal  witness  of  the  light  in  every  man,  and  claim  sub- 
mission to  themselves  on  the  ground  of  utterances  which 
need  a  further  evidence,  and  which  do  not  carry  to  my 
mind  any  character  distinguishing  them  in  kind  from  other 
utterances  which  have  been  manifested  to  be  delusive. 
One  of  the  two  cases  in  which  my  heart  gave  no  response 
to  the  utterance  (I  don't  recollect  whether  through  Mr.  D. 
or  Mr.  C.)  was,  when  a  seal  was  given  by  it  to  Dr. 
Thomson's  expression,  "  Christ  is  only  to  be  met  with  in 
the  church."  I  cannot  know  the  true  church  without  the 
true  light,  and  if  the  true  light  does  not  guide  me  until  I 
am  in  the  church,  and  even  then  only  under  its  ministra- 
tions, where  is  my  guide  to  the  true  church  %  I  do  not 
wish  to  press  their  words  beyond  the  meaning  which  they 
themselves  attach  to  them.  And  they  allow  regenerating 
light  before  being  in  the  church, — that  men  may  be  Chris- 
tians out  of  the  church.  I  know  in  some  measure  the  evil 
of  being  without  a  church  :  but  I  feel  that,  if  this  were  so  in 
its  full  extent,  I  should  be  without  a  God.  I  cannot  express 
to  you  how  much  T  feel  of  atheism  in  putting  anything, 
whatever  its  name  may  be,  above  or  in  place  of  the 
witness  of  God  in  my  own  heart,  the  true  light  which 
lighteth  every  man.  .  .  . 

I  feel  certain  that  the  individual  personality  of  religion 
is  not  to  be  lost  or  diminished,  but  strengthened  and  con- 
firmed, by  a  church ;  and  that  it  is  by  our  connection  with 
Christ  that  we  are  to  be  brought  into  a  church,  and  not  by 
our  connection  with  a  church  that  we  are  to  be  brought 
into  Christ.  We  are  commanded  to  prove  all  things,  but 
we  can  only  do  this  in  the  light  of  Him  who  is  the  true 
light  enlightening  us  personally.  And  I  am  sure  that  we 
can  escape  from  the  ignorance  and  darkness  which  are 
upon  us,  only  by  keeping  close  to  that  light,  and  receiving 
instruction  from  without  only  as  witnessed  to  by,  and  in 


^et.  45-  LADY  ELGIN.  157 

communion  with,  that  light ;  for  that  light  is  also  the  True 
Life  ;  and  no  instruction  can  be  life  to  us,  except  as  it  is 
witnessed  to  and  received  by  that  life.     Now  it  seems  to 
me,  that  it  is  against  this  they  teach.     I  know,  indeed, 
that  if  the  question  were  put  to  them,  whether  they  would 
have  a  man  to  disregard  the  witness  within  him,  they  would 
say,  No  ;  and  whether  a  man  might  not  be  a  Christian  out 
of  their  church,  they  would  say,  Yes  ;  yet  still  they  would 
have  him  come  into  their  church,  though  he  had  no  witness 
to  its  being  the  true  one,  and  after  he  was  in,  they  would 
have  him  trust  the  pastor  and  elders,  even  in  opposition  to 
the  light  within  himself.     I  am  sure  that  I  do  not  wilfully 
misunderstand  them,  but  what  I  have  lately  heard  from 
them  gives  me  always  the  impression  that  they  regard  the 
ordinances  of  the  church  rather  as  appointments  and  in- 
stitutions of  Christ,  which  are  to  be  obeyed  and  reverenced 
and  submitted  to,  and  on  account  of  obedience  to  which  a 
blessing  will  be  given,  than  as  open  channels  through  which 
the  Spirit  of  the  Head  is  to  flow  into  us  personally,  and  as 
meeting-places  where  we  are  continually  to  have  personal 
contact  with  Him.     I  know  that  they  would  not   allow 
this  ;  but  I  daresay  many  Papists  would  not  allow  a  similar 
charge  against  Popery.     I  feel  as  if  there   were  a   deep 
Ponery  in  their  system.     Christ  is  the  true  Priest,  because 
He  does  not  stand  between  us  and  God,  but  we  meet  God 
in  Him.    That  seems  to  me  the  true  character  of  an  ordin- 
ance.    I  see  so  much  good  and  beauty  in  their  order  and 
teaching  that  I  am  afraid  to  reject  their  claims,  and  yet  I 
feel  also  afraid  that  they  are  putting  men  and  forms  between 
God  and  the  people.     The  charge  which  God  by  His  pro- 
phets brings  against  His  people  in  the  last  days  is  the 
taking  His  ordinances  instead  of  Himself — see  Isaiah  i.  and 
all  through  Jeremiah.    They  said  not,  "  Where  is  Jehovah1?" 
but  "  The  temple  of  the  Lord,  the  temple  of  the  Lord."     I 


158  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1834. 

feel  that  my  part  is  to  wait  to  be  taught  of  God  the  mean- 
ing of  1  John  iv.  2,  3.  I  cannot  believe  in  its  verbal  in- 
terpretation notwithstanding  the  Probyn  children,  there 
are  so  many  opposite  facts.  I  desire  to  lie  at  the  feet  of 
Jesus,  and  learn  of  Him  to  be  meek  and  lowly  in  heart ; 
and  not  to  refuse  what  He  gives,  and  not  to  snatch  at  what 
His  own  hand  does  not  give.  I  hope  that  I  shall  not  be 
led  to  shut  my  ear  against  the  true  voice  because  I  have 
been  deceived  by  a  false  one ;  but  I  am  bound  to  be  on 
my  guard.  I  believe  that  an  evil  spirit,  or  the  flesh  even, 
may  speak  of  the  deep  things  of  God,  although  in  a  way 
that  the  true  life  and  light  in  us  might  detect  it,  or  at 
least  guard  us  from  suffering  by  it.  Pray  read  the  trac- 
tate in  Penington  on  "  laying  the  axe  to  the  root,"  etc., 
page  184.  There  is  a  remarkable  verse,  which  I  once  met 
on  a  remarkable  occasion,  that  I  would  also  refer  you  to — 
Ezekiel  xxvii.  1 7.  Tyrus  may  buy  Judah's  finest  wheat ; 
yea,  her  balm  and  oil  and  honey.  What  is  the  meaning  of 
this  1  You  would  know  what  part  of  the  parcel  properly 
belonged  to  yourself.  Those  who  are  weary  are  apt  to  get 
impatient,  and,  in  the  absence  of  the  sun,  to  kindle  a  fire 
and  to  compass  themselves  about  with  sparks  ;  and  in  my 
weariness,  which  has  been  great,  I  have  done  this  ;  but  I 
am  now  learning  that  "  all  the  days  of  the  afflicted  are 
evil ;"  but  yet,  in  the  midst  of  that  evil,  "  the  merry  heart 
hath  a  continual  feast "  in  eating  the  will  of  God. — Yours 
very  truly,  T.  Erskine. 

57.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

April  11,  1S34. 

Dear  Friend, — The  Israelites  were  doomed  to  journey 

through  the  wilderness  until  all  those  who  had  rebelled 

against  the  Lord  by  refusing  to  go  into  the  promised  land 

died.     That  evil  generation  was  just  the  type  of  the  flesh, 


iET.  45.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  150 


which  must  be  worn  down  and  broken  and  wasted  before 
we  are  meet  for  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light.  Our 
carcases  must  fall  in  this  wilderness,  and  the  life  which 
belongs  to  these  carcases  must  be  shed  out  either  drop  by 
drop  or  by  effusion.  This  life  is  in  the  blood,  and  without 
shedding  of  blood  there  is  no  remission — there  is  none. 
The  life  is  in  the  blood,  and  the  will  is  in  the  life  ;  the 
rebellious,  independent  will  of  man  must  be  shed  out,  for 
in  it  the  fall  consists,  and  in  the  shedding  out  of  it  redemp- 
tion consists. 

How  often  things  appear  to  happen  for  no  other  end 
but  to  provoke  and  to   distress,   and,  indeed,  things  do 
happen  to  consume  and  wear  out  the  carcases  that  must 
fall  in  the  wilderness.     Until  they  fall  we  cannot  enter  into 
the  promised  inheritance,  and  this  is  the  manner  of  our 
Father's  love  therefore — to  consume  and  waste  that  which 
hinders  our  entering  in;  and  in  all  that  consuming  and 
wasting  and  wearing  out  there  is  a  love  hidden,  and  that 
love,  which  is  God's  will  in  everything,  and  which  is  con- 
tained in  everything  that  happens,  as  the  kernel  is  con- 
tained in  the  shell,  is  the  food  which  God  giveth  us  that 
our  souls  may  eat  and  live.     This   is   the  manna  which 
is  rained  round  our  tents.     The  people,  when  they  were 
desired  to  take  it  up  and  eat  it,  said,  What  is  it  %  (for  that 
is  the  meaning  of  manna)  :  it  did  not  seem  to  them  to  be 
bread  from  heaven,  yet  it  was  bread  from  heaven,  though 
only  the  type  of  that  true  bread  which  our  Father  giveth 
us — the  meat  which  Jesus  ate,  as  He  says — "  My  meat  is 
to  do  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  me."     How  often,  when  my 
Father  has  given  me  this  meat  to  eat,  have  I  said,  What  is 
it  *?     Is  this  the  bread  of  heaven  1     We  would  eat  our  own 
will — that  is,  the  flesh-pot  of  Egypt — and  God  would  have 
us  eat  His  will,  that  we  may  be  of  one  mind  with  Him,  par- 
taking of  the  Divine  nature.     Beloved  friend,  how  much 


160  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKIKE.  1S34. 


easier  it  is  to  say  this  than  to  do  it !  But  it  is  more  sweet 
and  more  blessed  to  do  it  than  to  say  it.  It  is  an  awful 
judgment — "Out  of  thine  own  mouth  will  I  judge  thee, 
thou  wicked  servant."  I  have  often  felt  this  judgment  in 
my  own  heart ;  but  I  know  that  it  is  blessed  in  this  day 
of  grace  to  yield  the  heart  to  judgment,  for  thus  it  is  pre- 
pared for  the  day  of  judgment,  being  already  purged  by 
the  spirit  of  judgment.  What  a  wonderful  thing  it  is  for 
poor  weak  worms  of  the  dust  to  be  invited  to  take  hold  of 
the  will  of  God,  and  to  make  it  their  own  will,  and  thus 
to  be  united  to  Omnipotence.  This  is  the  meaning  of  that 
word,  "  Great  peace  have  they  that  love  thy  law,  and  no- 
thing shall  offend  them."  .  .  . 

I  have  since  heard  from  James  Macdonald,  Port- 
Glasgow,  that  the  spirit  amongst  them  had  testified  against 
the  London  mission,  saying  that  "  they  were  deceitful 
workers,  transforming  themselves  into  the  apostles  of 
Christ."  .  .  .  The  blessing  of  the  Lord  be  upon  us  all. 
The  oneness  of  the  opened  ear  and  the  prepared  body  is 
very  striking  :  consider  it  in  connection  with  John  x.  1  -i 
and  15.  We  are  all  well — old  and  young — thanks  to  the 
Preserver. 

58.    TO  THE  KEY.  EDWARD  IRVING. 

Linlathen,  \Uh  Oct.  1834. 
My  dear  Brother, — It  is  one  thing  for  a  man  to  have 
a  light  given  him  by  which  he  may  discern  all  things,  and 
it  is  another  thing  for  him  to  use  that  light.  Man's  re- 
sponsibility consists  in  his  having  that  light,  and  in  his 
possessing  the  power  of  using  it  or  of  refusing  to  use  it. 
For  the  true  light  is  the  light  which  lighteth  every  man, 
"  and  this  is  the  condemnation,  that  that  light  hath  come 
into  the  world,  and  men  have  loved  darkness  rather  than 
light."     This  is  the  condemnation,  the  only  condemnation, 


jet.  46.  REV.  EDWARD  IRVING.  161 

aud  thus  he  that  denies  that  light  in  man  denies  the  only 
condemnation. 

I  never  dreamt  of  limiting  man's  responsibility  by  his 
actual  discernment;  on  the  contrary,  I  desire,  and  have 
desired,  to  justify  God  in  all  the  dark  wanderings  of  man, 
by  acknowledging  that  there  is  in  each  "  man's  hand  a  price 
to  buy  wisdom,"  and  that  no  man  needs  to  say,  "Who 
shall  ascend  into  heaven,  or  descend  into  the  deep  to  bring 
Christ  to  him?  for  that  the  word  is  nigh  him,  in  his 
mouth  and  in  his  heart,  that  he  may  hear  it,"  Kom.  x. ; 
and  when  I  said  in  my  letter  to  you  that  men  were  often 
very  loose  in  their  profession  of  faith  in  the  Bible,  for 
that  they  did  not  truly  believe  in  any  truth  of  God  which 
they  had  not  been  taught  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  I  was  in 
my  mind  referring  to  the  1 7  th  verse  of  that  same  tenth 
chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  where  it  is  written, 
"  Faith  cometh  by  hearing,  even  hearing  through  the  word 
of  God,"  evidently  pointing  to  that  same  word  which  is  in 
the  heart  (mentioned  in  the  8th  verse),  and  limiting  the 
true  meaning  of  faith  to  the  witness  of  that  inward  word. 
The  natural  man  understandeth  not  the  things  of  the 
Spirit,  for  no  man  understandeth  the  things  of  the  Spirit 
but  by  the  Spirit,  and  this  is  his  sin,  that  he  will  still 
live  on  in  the  flesh,  instead  of  living  in  the  Spirit  which 
God  hath  given  to  him  in  Jesus  Christ.  Do  I  say  then 
that  his  ignorance  of  the  things  of  God  is  his  measure  of 
responsibility  1  No  !  I  justify  God  in  saying  that  God 
hath  given  to  him  a  spiritual  light  and  life  in  his  Son, 
whereby  he  may  know  and  do  the  things  of  God,  and 
therefore  that  his  ignorance  as  well  as  his  disobedience  has 
sin  in  it.  He  may,  however,  in  the  midst  of  an  entire 
want  of  spiritual  teaching,  have  arrived  at  a  conviction  that 
the  Bible  is  an  inspired  book,  either  by  receiving  it  on 
the  authority  of  those  about  him,  or  by  his  own  historical 

L 


162  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1834. 

researches  and  reasonings  thereon,  and  this  he  may  consider 
faith,  but  surely  you  would  consider  it  a  contradiction  to 
say  that  such  a  person  could  exercise  faith,  for  faith  "  seeth 
Him  who  is  invisible."  He  has  not  received  God's  witness 
in  it,  but  man's  or  reason's  ;  he  has  not  received  the  witness 
which  "  is  greater,"  and  so  he  has  not  "  the  witness  in  him- 
self." Surely  his  conviction,  however  conscientious,  is  not 
to  be  confounded  with  the  spiritual  faith  of  a  child  of 
God — his  conviction  is  a  carnal  thing,  for  it  does  not  see 
God,  which  is  the  true  mark  of  Christian  faith.  "  This 
is  life  eternal,  when  they  know  thee,  the  only  true  God." 
And  how  is  He  known  but  by  faith  ?  He  that  believeth 
hath  life,  just  because  faith  sees  and  receives  God.  An 
unspiritual  man  cannot  have  faith  in  the  Bible,  just  be- 
cause he  does  not  meet  God  in  it.  And  in  like  manner 
a  spiritual  man  has  only  true  faith  in  that  part  of  the 
Bible  in  which  he  sees  and  receives  God.  To  confound 
these  two  beliefs  is  to  confound  the  greater  witness  with 
the  less.  The  fact  of  a  man's  being  without  the  greater 
witness  is  no  apology  for  his  being  without  it,  but  it 
proves  that  he  has  not  divine  faith  in  the  thing,  for  he 
that  believeth  hath  the  witness  in  himself. 

Wherever  I  find  the  authority  of  God  commanding  or 
forbidding,  although  I  may  not  enter  into  the  spirit  of  the 
ordinance,  I  am  bound  to  yield  my  submission  ;  but  in  this 
case  I  am,  from  some  carnality,  shutting  myself  out  from 
the  liberty  of  children.  Even  so,  as  I  recognise  the  Bible 
as  a  whole  to  be  the  inspiration  of  God,  the  want  of  the 
internal  witness  and  light  to  any  part  of  it  does  not  lift 
me  from  under  its  obligation ;  but  only  I  feel  that  in  that 
part  I  am  untaught  and  unprofited,  although  my  Father 
gave  it  to  me  for  teaching  and  profiting.  I  acknowledge 
its  inspiration,  but  I  am  not  receiving  in  that  faith  which 
is  of  the  operation  of  the  Spirit.     But  unless  there  be  an 


jet.  46.  REV.  EDWARD  IRVING.  163 


internal  witness  to  the  things  of  God  in  man,  man  can 
have  no  responsibility  at  all.  ...  Is  it  on  your  authority 
that  I  am  to  risk  my  soul  %  You  may  speak  a  thing 
which  I  had  never  conceived,  nor  imagined,  nor  heard 
before ;  nay,  it  might  be  opposed  to  all  my  preconceived 
thoughts  on  the  subject,  and  yet  I  may  find  a  witness 
in  me  to  it  contending  against  all  my  own  theories  on  the 
subject,  and  showing  me  a  glory  to  God  in  it,  which  I 
cannot  gainsay,  so  that  I  am  compelled  to  acknowledge 
the  word  you  have  spoken  as  the  word  of  God,  quick  and 
powerful.  From  whom  do  I  receive  this  1  Certainly  not 
from  you,  nor  on  your  authority,  but  through  you.  If  I 
acknowledge  the  same  word,  not  from  the  same  inward 
witness  to  it,  but  because  I  believe  you  to  be  an  ordained 
pastor,  I  get  nothing  that  is  quick  and  powerful ;  I  receive 
it  as  a  servant,  not  as  a  son ;  I  get  it  not  from  God 
through  you,  but  from  you,  and  on  your  authority,  as  a 
recognised  pastor  of  God's  ordination.  The  faith  of  the 
Jews  in  ■  the  construction  of  the  tabernacle  was  a  very 
different  faith  from  that  which  we  are  called  to  exercise, 
and  very  different  from  that  which  Abraham  had  in  God, 
and  which  doubtless  many  of  those  who  understood  not 
the  meaning  of  the  tabernacle  had  in  God.  But  for  that 
outward  second-hand  faith  they  had  an  outward  founda- 
tion in  the  miracles  they  saw.  Now,  you  require  this 
outward  faith,  but  without  any  .outward  foundation.  The 
patterns  of  the  heavenly  things  could  only  be  understood 
by  those  who  knew  the  things  of  which  they  were  the 
patterns,  and  the  most  absolute  and  unquestioning  submis- 
sion to  these  pattern  ordinances  was  a  very  different  thing 
from  that  faith  which  is  "  the  substance  of  things  hoped 
for,  and  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen."  This  is  the  faith 
of  the  new  covenant ;  it  is  itself  the  grain  of  mustard-seed, 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  within.     My  dear  friend,  what  I 


164  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1834. 


feel  in  your  letter  is  tlie  entire  annihilation  by  it  of  all 
true    personal,  spiritual  religion  or  conscious  communion 
with  God.     If  man  has  not  that  in  him  by  which  that 
which   comes  from  God    can  be  distinguished  from  that 
which    comes  from    another  quarter,    he    is  incapable  of 
religion,  and  if  men  are  to  be  taught  not  by  the  Spirit  of 
God,  but  by  a  man,  what  is  the  use  of  your  pressing  on 
your  people  that  they  should  not  take  their  pastor  as  a 
substitute  for  Christ,  or  as  a  third  party  bearing  a  message 
to  them  from  Him,  but  that  they  should  meet  Christ  in 
their  pastor  !     I  conceive  that  this  expression  of  meeting 
Christ  in  the  pastor  is  susceptible  only  of  two  different 
meanings.     The  one  meaning  is  that  the    people  should 
look   to    their  pastor  as  the  Jews  looked  to   their  high 
priest,  whether  he  was  a  man  of  God  or  not,  yet  as  an 
ordinance  of  God  to  them,  through  whom  they  were  to 
expect  a  blessing.     This  is,  however,  not  properly  meeting 
Christ,  it  is  only  meeting  Christ's  appointment ;  that  is,  it 
is  meeting  Christ's  substitute,  or  a  third  party  acting  fur 
Him,  and  there  is  no  such  thing  recognised  in  the  new 
covenant.     The  other  meaning  is,  that  the  people  should 
discern    Christ's    own    teaching  in  the  teaching  of  their 
pastor,  by  the  Spirit's  witness  within  them.     The  first  of 
these  meanings  belongs  to  the  patterns  of  the  heavenly 
things  ;  the  second  belongs  to  the  heavenly  things  them- 
selves, to  that  Church  in  which  all  are  taught  of  God.     I 
believe  that  you  would  take   the  first  meaning ;  because 
I  think  that  under  spiritual  names  you  are  returning  to 
the  patterns,  although  you  have  none   of  those  outward 
signs  to  show  on   which   the   authority  of  that  outward 
Church  was  founded ;  and  although  your  warning  of  the 
danger  of  taking  the  pastor  as  a  substitute  for  his  Lord 
appears  so  contradictory  to  it,  God  manifest  in  the  flesh  is 
no  official  or  conventional  thing,  it  is  a  blessed  reality. 


jet.  46.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  165 

59.    TO  MISS  STUART. 

Cadder,  Saturday  night,  Dec.  13,  1834.  * 
You  will  have  heard  of  the  death  of  Irving.  You  can- 
not enter  into  my  feelings  on  this  event,  as  you  did  not 
know  him  or  regard  him  as  I  did.  He  has  been  a  remark- 
able man  in  a  remarkable  age.  He  was  a  man  of  much 
child-like  feeling  to  God,  and  personal  dependence  on  Him, 
amidst  things  which  may  well  appear  unintelligible  and 
strange  in  his  history. — Yours  most  truly,  T.  E. 

60.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

6th  Feb.  1835. 
Dear  Friend. — James  Macdonald  is  to  be  buried  this 
day  at  one  o'clock.  This  is  another  very  solemn  thing.  I 
believe  that  to  the  very  last  he  felt  assured  that  the  voice 
which  spoke  by  him  was  the  voice  of  the  Spirit.  He  was 
a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  his  trust  and  joy  were  in  the 
Lord,  and  he  was  a  witness  for  God.  He  died  on  Monday. 
I  had  a  short  letter  from  his  brother  telling  me  of  it,  and 
telling  me  that  before  his  death,  but  when  he  felt  its 
approach,  he  spoke  to  them  many  things  which  would  be 
a  consolation  to  them  whilst  their  pilgrimage  lasted.  This 
event  has  recalled  many  things  to  my  remembrance.  I 
lived  in  the  house  with  them  for  six  weeks,  I  believe,  and 
I  found  them  a  family  united  to  God  and  to  each  other. 
James  especially  was  an  amiable  and  clean  character — 
perfectly  true.1     And  those  manifestations  which  I  have  so 

1  George  Macdonahl  died  in  the  year  following,  and  like  his  brother 
continued  to  the  last  in  the  assurance  that  the  power  by  which  the  utter- 
ances was  given  was  supernatural  and  divine.  Th<?  narrative  given  by 
Dr.  Norton  of  the  last  days  of  both  brothers  conveys  a  deep  impression 
of  the  simplicity,  humility,  and  fervour  of  their  piety.  That  they  both 
died  in  early  manhood,  of  the  same  disease  which  carried  off  Isabella 
Campbell,  may  so  far  account  for  the  peculiarly  vivid  and  ecstatic  form 
winch  their  piety  at  times  assumed. 


1GG  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1837. 


often  witnessed  in  him  were  indeed  most  wonderful  things 
and  most  mighty,  and  yet — I  am  thoroughly  persuaded — 
delusive.  The  partakers  in  these  things  are  now  dropping 
off,  called  one  after  another  to  give  in  their  account.  Dear 
Christian  would  have  her  history  recalled  vividly  to  her 
by  the  return  of  the  season  when  the  Lord  took  her 
husband  to  Himself,  blessing  his  soul  with  His  own  blessed 
light,  and  blessing  her  by  showing  that  He  had  thus 
blessed  him.     "  It  is  all  light  to  me,  the  dark  valley." 

The  following  Note  was  appended  by  Mr.  Erskine  to 
his  treatise  on  Election,  published  in  1837  : — 

"  In  two  former  publications  of  mine,  the  one  entitled, 
A  Trad  on  the  Gifts  of  the  Spirit, — the  other,  The  Brazen 
Serpent, — I  have  expressed  my  conviction,  that  the  remark- 
able manifestations  which  I  witnessed  in  certain  individuals 
in  the  West  of  Scotland,  about  eight  years  ago,  were  the 
miraculous  gifts  of  the  Spirit,  of  the  same  character  as  those 
of  which  we  read  in  the  New  Testament.  Since  then, 
however,  I  have  come  to  think  differently,  and  I  do  not 
now  believe  that  they  were  so. 

"  But  I  still  continue  to  think,  that  to  any  one  whose 
expectations  are  formed  by,  and  founded  on,  the  declara- 
tions of  the  New  Testament,  the  disappearance  of  those 
o-ifts  from  the  Church  must  be  a  greater  difficulty  than  their 
re-appearance  could  possibly  be. 

"  I  think  it  but  just  to  add,  that  though  I  no  longer  be- 
lieve that  those  manifestations  were  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit, 
my  doubts  as  to  their  nature  have  not  at  all  arisen  from 
any  discovery,  or  even  suspicion,  of  imposture  in  the 
individuals  in  whom  they  have  appeared.  On  the  contrary, 
I  can  bear  testimony  that  I  have  not  often  in  the  course  of 
my  life  met  with  men  more  marked  by  native  simplicity 
and  truth  of  character,  as  well  as  by  godliness,  than  James 


/et.  48.  '  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION:  167 

and  George  Macdonald,  the  two  first  in  whom  I  witnessed 
those  manifestations. 

"  Both  these  men  are  now  dead,  and  they  continued,  I 
know,  to  their  dying  hour,  in  the  confident  belief  that  the 
work  in  them  was  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  I  mention  this  for 
the  information  of  the  reader  who  may  feel  interested  in 
their  history,  although  it  is  a  fact  which  does  not  influence 
my  own  conviction  on  the  subject. 

"  To  some  it  may  appear  as  if  I  were  assuming  an  import- 
ance to  myself,  by  publishing  my  change  of  opinion  ;  but  I 
am  in  truth  only  clearing  my  conscience,  which  requires 
me  thus  publicly  to  withdraw  a  testimony  which  I  had 
publicly  given,  when  I  no  longer  believe  it  myself." 

With  reference  to  this  Note,  Mr.  Duncan  of  Parkhill, 
Arbroath — who  was  a  chosen  associate  and  friend  of 
Mr.  Erskine  all  through  the  period  to  which  it  refers — in 
a  letter  dated  December  30th,  1876,  says,  "Looking  into 
the  Memorial  of  the  Macdonalds  brings  many  things 
vividly  before  me.  Norton  says  they  were  gentlemanly 
men,  which  is  most  true  ;  and  what  he  says  of  George's 
face  shining  as  you  can  believe  Stephen's  did,  I  once  saw, 
when  he  was  speaking  in  that  power,  when  we  were  quite 
alone  on  the  hill  above  Port-Glasgow,  when  I  had  made  a 
remark  on  the  beauty  of  the  sun  setting  on  the  Clyde,  and 
he  broke  out  about  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth. 
I  could  never  agree  with  what  Mr.  Erskine  said  in  his 
note,  although  I  doubt  not  that  their  own  spirits  came  in 
at  times.  From  conversations  with  Mr.  Erskine  I  am 
satisfied  that  he  would  have  been  glad  that  he  had  not 
said  so  much  as  he  did  say." 


168  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1834. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Letters  from  1834  till  1837. 

Early  in  1834  there  arrived  at  Linlathen  the  portraits 
of  Mr.  Erskine  of  Cardross  and  his  wife,  Lady  Christian, 
sent  by  their  daughters  Miss  Rachel  Erskine  and  her  sister. 
Their  receipt  was  thus  acknowledged  : — 

61.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE  AND  HER  SISTER. 

Linlathen,  lid  April  1834. 
Beloved  Friends, — I  am  very  thankful  for  your  love, 
and  I  can  say  that  I  could  scarcely  devise  any  expression 
of  love  more  gratifying  to  me  than  these  pictures.  The 
most  distinct  feelings  of  veneration  that  I  have  ever  experi- 
enced towards  human  beings  are  associated  with  those  two 
portraits.  I  never  saw  anything  in  either  of  them  that  my 
heart  ever  ventured  to  blame ;  they  stand  in  my  memory 
in  perfect  purity,  surrounded  with  an  admiring  love.  I 
remember,  when  I  heard  of  my  uncle's  death,  I  cried  the 
whole  day  without  any  intermission.  And  though  she  died 
after  my  days  of  weeping  were  much  past,  yet  she  held  her 
purity  in  the  judgment  of  my  heart — after  that  judgment 
had  begun  to  venture  to  act  on  all,  without  respect  of  per- 
sons. Their  memory  is  most  sweet  to  me — far  sweeter 
than  all  the  genius  of  Raphael.  And  I  know  what  a  gift 
of  affection  it  is  from  you,  and  of  confidence  ;  for  you  could 
not  allow  them  to  go  anywhere  but  where  you  were  sure 


XT.  45.     LETTERS  FROM  GAUSSEN  AND  A.  MONOD.      169 


they  would  find  reverence  and  love.     They  will  find  rever- 
ence and  love  from  me,  you  may  rest  assured.   .  .  . 

In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  (1834)  Mr.  Erskine  had 
the  gratification  of  receiving  the  two  following  letters 
written  on  the  same  sheet  of  paper  : — 

LETTERS  FROM  MM.  GAUSSEN  AND  ADOLPHE  MONOD. 

"Les  Grottes,  Mercredi,  1  Oct.  1834. 
"  Mon  cher  Frere, — Ayant  eu  la  douceur  de  posseder 
quelques  jours  Adolphe  Monod  sous  mon  toit,  j'ai  desire" 
que  deux  amis  qui  aiment  tant  a  reporter  sur  vous  leurs 
conversations  ne  separassent  pas  sans  s'etre  eux-memes 
rappeles  a  vos  prieres  et  aux  souvenirs  de  votre  amitie 
chretienne.  (II  part  demain  matin.)  Quant  a  moi,  je  puis 
vous  dire  comhien  souvent  mes  pensees  me  ramenent  aux 
momens  que  j'ai  passes  avec  vous  depuis  notre  premiere 
priere  a  Royal  Circus  jusqu'a  celle  de  notre  separation  le 
1 7  de  Novembre  dans  l'hotel  de  Glasgow.  Je  desire  que 
tous  ces  souvenirs  aussi  se  resolvent  en  prieres  et  en 
actions  de  graces  devant  Celui  qui  a  prie  pour  nous  le  front 
contre  terre.  Je  ne  saurais  vous  exprimer,  cher  ami,  avec 
quelle  joie  fraternelle  j'ai  ou'i  dire  que  votre  foi  etait 
devenue  plus  simple,  et  que  votre  conversation,  toujours 
pleine  de  sentiment,  se  reportait  sur  l'ensemble  des  Veritas 
et  des  esperances  de  la  foi,  sans  vous  laisser  aller  a  des 
preemptions  qui  en  isolent  quelques  unes.  Vous  pourrez 
faire  beaucoup  de  bien  quand,  avec  les  dons  qui  vous  ont  ete 
confies,  vous  vous  attacherez  humblement  a  de>elopper  l'une 
apres  l'autre  les  sentences  du  Saint  Esprit,  telles  qu'elles  se 
presenteront  sous  vos  mains  dans  la  Sainte  Ecriture,  et  sans 
vous  embarrasser  d'y  etablir  ou  d'y  confirmer  des  systemes. 
"  Cher  frere,  je  me  sens  uni  a  vous  par  des  liens  indestruc- 
tibles,  parceque  je  les  sens  rattaches  a  Celui  qui  est  la  tete 


170  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1834. 

toujours  vivante  de  son  Corps,  a  Celui  qui  etait,  qui  est,  et 
qui  sera.  Votre  nom  revient  souvent  sur  nies  levres 
devant  Dieu  et  devant  les  hommes,  et  cette  saison  rappelle 
plus  souvent  mes  pens^es  sur  les  souvenirs  de  l'automne 
1832.  J'aime  a  penser  avec  reconnaissance  a  votre  accueil, 
non  pas  meme  tant  a  cause  de  ce  qu'il  eut  d'affectueux, 
qu'en  memoire  de  ce  que  j'y  trouvai  d'edifiant.  Que  le 
Seigneur  vous  multiplie  ses  consolations,  et  vous  gouverne 
toujours  plus  par  son  Esprit !  Adieu  en  Lui.  Quand  je 
prie  pour  vous,  j'y  joins  votre  mere.  Vous  apprendrez 
avec  interet  que  la  mienne  est  en  bonne  sante,  et  que  son 
ame  est  b^nie.  Merle  est  malade  de  la  poitrine;  priez 
pour  lui  et  pour  nous.  Je  lui  ai  fait  lire  les  deux  lettres 
que  j'ai  recues  de  vous  et  ou  vous  parlez  des  doctrines : 
j'aurais  voulu  qu'il  vous  6crivit.  Marc  Vernet  part  demain 
pour  l'ltalie  avec  son  pere  et  Anna.  Madame  de  Stael  et 
sa  belle  sceur  sont  a  Coppet.  Nous  avons  plus  d'une  fois 
elev6  notre  voix  en  priere  dans  cette  famille  pour  Madame 

Erskine  et  pour  vous  dans  le  terns  de  la  maladie  de 

Elisabeth.  Eecommandez-moi  au  souvenir  chretien  de 
Scott,  de  Madame  Rich,  de  Capitaine  Stirling,  et  de  vos 
parents  a  Glentyan.  Adieu  encore.  Demanclez  pour  moi 
la  sanctification. — V.  affectionne,  L.  Gaussen." 

"  Aux  Grottes,  \er  Octobre  1834. 
"  Bien  CHER  Frere, — II  m'est  doux  de  me  joindre  a  un 
frere  aussi  aim6  que  Gaussen  pour  ecrire  a  un  frere  aussi 
aim6  que  vous.  C'est  par  vous  et  par  lui,  plus  que  par 
aucun  autre  homme,  je  crois,  que  sous  la  benediction  d'en 
haut  j'ai  6te"  amene  des  tenebres  a  la  lumiere,  et  de 
l'angoisse  a  la  paix.  Que  le  Seigneur  vous  rende  au  double 
le  bien  que  vous  m'avez  fait  de  sa  part !  J'ai  recu  clans  ce 
temps  la  lettre  que  vous  avez  eu  la  bont6  de  m'ecrire  en 
reponse  a  la  mienne.     Je  recommande  encore  a  vous,  et 


jet.  45.  HOUSEHOLD  AT  LINLATHEN.  171 


par  vous  a  vos  amis,  l'oeuvre  que  le  Seigneur  a  commencee 
a  Lyon,  et  qui  s'y  continue  avec  un  succes,  non  eclatant, 
mais  solide  et  croissant,  autant  que  j'en  puis  juger — plus 
specialement  en  ce  qui  concerne  les  Catholiques ;  et  s'ils  ne 
peuvent  l'aider  par  leurs  dons,  qu'ils  l'aident  par  leurs 
prieres,  et  combattent  le  bon  combat  avec  les  pauvres  de 
Lyon.  Que  le  Seigneur  vous  benisse  dans  vos  voies,  bien 
aime  frere,  qu'il  se  glorifie  en  vous  !  qu'il  vous  garde  de 
toute  erreur,  qu'il  vous  en  retire  pour  sa  gloire  en  vous  et 
par  vous.  Je  fais  pour  vous  du  fond  du  cceur,  et  vous  prie 
de  faire  pour  moi,  la  priere  de  Paul,  1  Thess.  v.  23,  24. 
Saluez  pour  moi,  dans  le  Seigneur,  toute  votre  maison.  Ma 
famille,  ma  femme,  mes  trois  enfans,  dont  le  dernier,  ne  le 
29  Aout  dernier,  est  un  fils,  sont  bien.  Gaussen  vous  aura 
peutetre  entretenu  de  l'objet  de  mon  voyage  a  Geneve. 
Priez  le  Seigneur  de  me  conduire,  en  sa  lumiere  et  en  sa 
paix.  Que  la  paix  soit  avec  vous  ! — Votre  tendrement  affec- 
tionne  et  reconnaissant  frere,  Adolphe  Monod. 

"  P.S. — Je  ne  puis  trouver,  en  particulier,  votre  doctrine 
du  pardon  universel  dans  l'Ecriture  lue  avec  l' esprit  du  petit 
enfant,  Jean  iii.  36.  Mais  que  le  Seigneur  nous  eclaire  les 
uns  et  les  autres  Lui  seul;  et  nous  donne  de  ne  pas  juger 
mais  de  nous  aimer  !" 

At  the  opening  of  the  year  1835,  the  family  at  Lin- 
lathen  consisted  of  Mr.  Erskine,  his  mother,  Captain  and 
Mrs.  Paterson,  and  their  four  children.  Within  the  next 
two  years  four  of  these  eight  were  removed  by  death  :  Ann 
Graham  Paterson,  the  eldest  of  the  children,  died  on  the 
3d  of  May  1835,  in  her  thirteenth  year;  Mr.  Erskine's 
mother  on  the  10th  of  March  1836  ;  George  Anna  Pater- 
son, the  second  child  of  the  family,  on  the  3d  of  June 
1836,  in  her  thirteenth  year;  and  David  Charles  Pater- 
son, the  youngest  child,  on  the  26th  of  October  1836. 


172  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1835. 

62.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

Linlathen,  30<A  April  1835. 
My  dear  Friend, — About  the  time  that  I  wrote  you 
Ann's  symptoms  became  worse,  and  have  continued  very 
bad,  leading  us  to  apprehend  that  it  may  be  the  will  of  our 
Father  to  take  her  hence.  .  .  .  The  dear  child  seems  aware 
of  her  situation,  and  further,  she  seems  to  hear  her  Father's 
voice,  and  to  have  some  feeling  of  His  nearness.  Her  affec- 
tion for  her  earthly  father,  and  her  remarkable  confidence 
in  him  and  delight  in  his  presence,  seem  given  to  teach  her 
what  is  due  to  the  Father  of  her  spirit.  She  said  to  her 
mother  the  other  day,  speaking  of  her  father,  "  It  is  just 
life  to  me  to  see  his  face."  .  .  .  Ever  yours,  T.  E. 

63.    TO  THE  REV.  ALEX.  J.  SCOTT. 

Linlathen,  5th  May  1835. 

My  dear  Scott, — Our  dear  child  is  taken  away.  Her 
brief  history,  as  far  as  this  step  goes,  is  concluded.  I  feel 
that  Jesus  has  been  doing  that  to  us  through  her  which 
He  so  often  did  to  His  disciples.  He  took  a  little  child, 
and  set  him  in  the  midst  of  them.  The  continual  giving 
up  of  a  naturally  very  strong  will  was  the  lesson  which  he 
had  been  continually  giving  her  to  learn,  and  which  she  did 
learn,  and  she  found  it  to  be  the  entering  in  by  the  door 
into  the  sheepfold.  Her  heart  was  made  glad  with  that 
joy  which  no  one  taketh  from  her,  and  she  departed  in  the 
sense  of  that  joy.  All  the  other  children  continue  very  ill 
of  the  same  malady,  hooping-cough.  You  will  let  Mrs. 
Eich  know,  and  Miss  Farrer.  At  the  last  it  seemed  as  if 
a  ray  of  the  eternal  light  filled  her.  She  died  on  Sunday 
morning  the  3d  May. 

I  wish  to  know  particularly  about  Mrs.  Eich's  health. — 
Yours  affectionately,  T.  Erskine. 


jet.  46.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKIXE.  173 


64.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

Linlathex,  May  1835. 
Dear  Cousin  Rachel, — I  know  how  much  you  are  all 
with  us  at  this  time.  .  .  .  When  I  look  at  Ann's  counten- 
ance, still  radiant  with  that  light  which  filled  her  spirit 
before  she  departed,  I  feel  that  I  can  desire  nothing  higher 
for  the  other  children  than  that  they  should  be  partakers 
of  the  same  blessedness.  This  is  the  sixth  day  since  her 
death,  and  yet  the  face  is  most  pleasing,  as  if  to  remind  us 
where  the  spirit  is.  The  parents  are  much  supported,  but 
it  is  a  great  breaking  up.  Ann  Avas  no  common  child. 
Her  activity  and  friendship,  and  kindliness  and  zeal,  brought 
her  continually  into  the  eye  and  thought  of  all  the  house, 
and  how  much  more  of  her  parents,  who  moreover  had  a 
constant  anxiety  about  her  in  consequence  of  the  fervour 
of  her  nature,  as  well  as  of  the  delicacy  of  her  frame.  Yes, 
Henrietta  was  right :  happy  child — happy,  happy,  happy. 
Blessed  be  the  God  of  all  grace  for  His  wonderful  works  to 
the  children  of  men.  But  we  can  only  receive  the  true 
comfort  from  the  belief  of  her  happiness,  whilst  we  our- 
selves are  living  in  the  spirit  of  that  blessedness.  A  mere 
name  won't  comfort  under  a  real  heart-break.  Davie  and 
the  father  must  be  touching  that  happiness  in  their  own 
hearts  if  they  would  escape  desolateness.  My  mother  is 
pretty  well,  and  Jane  Stirling's  presence  has  been  a  great 
blessing.  She  was  a  special  favourite  of  Ann's,  and  Ann's 
loving  heart  rejoiced  in  the  sight  of  her.  Farewell. — Ever 
yours,  T.  Erskine. 

65.  to  the  same. 

Linlathen,  11th  March  1S36. 

Dearest  Cousin  Rachel, — My  beloved  mother  is  dead. 
What  a  solemn   event — to  her,  to  us,  to  me  1     What  a 


Hi  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1836. 

history  it  recalls,  of  kindness  how  unrequited,  of  offences 
so  freely  and  fully  forgiven  !  There  is  nothing  so  like  our 
relation  to  God  as  our  relation  to  a  mother.  There  is  none 
who  has  borne  so  much  from  us  ;  there  is  none  whose  for- 
giveness we  have  looked  upon  so  much  as  our  due.  Sweet 
mother,  she  is  now  looking  so  sweet,  so  undisturbed,  so 
pure,  sleeping  in  Jesus !  .  .  . — Yours  affectionately,  most 
affectionately,  T.  Erskine. 

66.    TO  THE  REV.  JOHN  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL. 

Linlathen,  March  14,  1836. 

My  dear  Brother, — When  I  parted  from  you  the 
other  day  I  little  thought  that  the  first  letter  I  should 
write  to  you  would  be  to  tell  you  that  my  affectionate  and 
revered  parent  was  gone  hence. 

I  think  I  had  mentioned  to  you  that  she  had  had  a 
slight  inflammatory  action  on  her  windpipe,  but  I  thought 
nothing  of  it,  as  the  Patersons  thought  nothing  of  it,  and 
yet  it  was  the  Lord's  summons  to  her. 

On  Wednesday  night  for  the  first  time  they  apprehended 
danger,  and  on  Thursday  morning  at  half-past  seven  she 
fell  asleep. 

My  dear  brother,  I  feel  very  thankful  to  be  without 
fear  concerning  her  soul.  She  was  of  a  very  nervous,  agi- 
tated nature,  and  I  had  always  the  thought  that  the  time 
of  death  might  have  been  a  very  trying  time  to  her,  but 
the  Lord  gave  her  quietness  of  spirit,  and  delivered  her 
from  seeking  refuge  in  those  about  her  whom  she  loved, 
and  taught  her  to  lean  upon  Himself.  My  beloved  mother 
has  lived  very  much  in  the  spirit  of  a  little  child,  meek  and 
lowly  in  heart,  learning,  I  trust,  from  Jesus  Himself,  and 
most  willing  to  learn  from  any  one. 

She  has  been  to  us,  in  her  relation  of  mother,  a  most 
instructive  type  and  witness  of  the  love  of  God. 


^T.  47.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE.  175 


I  feel  in  looking  back  that  there  is  no  one  except  God 
who  has  had  to  bear  so  much  from  me,  or  who  has  borne 
so  much,  and  I  feel  that  though  I  have  often  grieved  her 
affection,  I  never  could  quench  it.  I  can  now  think  of  her 
patience  and  long-suffering,  and  whilst  I  feel  much  self- 
reproach,  I  can  bless  God  that  He  hath  shown  me  so  much 
of  His  own  heart  in  her.  ...  As  I  look  on  her  counte- 
nance, so  pale  and  still  and  sweet,  the  history  of  my  past 
life  is  brought  much  before  me — the  vanity  of  all  things, 
the  vain  show.  My  sister  bears  it  better  than  I  expected. 
There  is  not  so  much  bitterness  of  heart  connected  with 
this  bereavement  to  her  as  there  was  in  Ann's.  It  makes 
an  immense  change  on  the  world  to  me.  She  was  the 
recaller  of  past  histories  to  me,  in  which  my  sisters  had 
no  concern  even.  Mrs.  Erskine  is  with  us,  and  Miss  Stir- 
ling went  to  Cadder. 

There  are  many  things  which,  if  it  be  the  Lord's  will 
that  we  again  meet,  I  shall  be  happy  to  tell  you  of  her. 
Farewell.    Kemember  us  before  God. — Yours  affectionately, 

T,  Erskine. 

It  is  a  bitter  part  of  this  to  me  that  I  was  still  in 
Edinburgh. 

G7.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

Cadder,  \Zth  May  1836. 
Dearest  Cousin  Eachel, — I  don't  think  for  many 
years  I  have  had  so  little  intercourse  with  you  as  for  these 
few  months  past — these  few  months,  crowded  with  so  many 
things.  We  have  had  to-night  a  note  from  Davie,  dated 
Monday  last,  containing  rather  better  accounts  of  Georgie. 
We  don't  feel  much  encouraged  by  them,  however.  She  is 
in  her  Father's  tender  hand,  dear  child,  and  nothing  incon- 
sistent with  His  fatherly  love  will  ever  befall  her.  That  is 
our  encouragement,  but  I  don't  expect  her  recovery,  andv 


176  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1836. 

it  will  be  a  bitter  cup  to  her  poor  mother,  whose  nature 
feels  those  things  dreadfully. 

I  often  feel  that  there  is  one  heart  that  used  to  be 
anxiously  and  actively  interested  in  all  these  concerns  that 
has  now  entered  into  enduring  peace.  My  dear  mother  is 
at  rest.  I  was  happy  to  see  dear  cousin  Manie  at  Airth. 
I  feel  an  increasing  value  for  those  loves  and  friendships, 
which  I  never  earned  myself,  but  which  were  given  to  me 
in  my  birth.  I  remember  when  the  self-conceit  of  my 
heart  used  to  make  a  different  estimate,  but  I  have  fully 
come  back  to  the  unearned  system. 

68.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

[Linlathen],  Sunday,  5th  June  1836. 

My  dear  Cousin, — On  Friday  morning  little  Georgie 
was  removed  from  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death, 
knowing  and  trusting  her  Leader  and  Shepherd.  Her 
voyage  home  was  less  painful  than  they  had  expected ;  but 
from  the  time  of  her  return  home  the  progress  of  her 
disease  was  much  more  rapid  than  it  had  been  before. 
She  suffered  much,  both  from  pain  and  breathlessness,  but 
she  was  kept  in  perfect  patience  and  quietness  of  spirit ; 
and  the  Lord  showed  her  much  of  His  fatherly  heart,  as 
He  had  done  before  to  her  sister,  so  that  she  was  very 
ready  and  willing  to  trust  herself  alone  into  His  hands. 

Davie  is  very  delicate,  and  the  uninterrupted  watching 
which  she  has  gone  through  on  this  occasion  has,  I  have 
no  doubt,  made  a  breach  in  her  constitution.  James 
(Capt.  P.)  is  better  than  I  expected.  He  takes  his  full 
share  in  all  these  things,  you  know,  not  only  being  a  very 
loving  father,  but  also  very  anxious  to  save  Davie.  They 
were  thankful  that  they  were  left  to  themselves  to  nurse 
and  attend  Georgie ;  for  she  was  so  timid,  that  their  two 
faces  were  the  only  faces  that  gave  her  no  constraint. 


.-et.  48.  M.  GAUSSEN.  177 

Dear  Davie  is  most  sweet.  I  had  hoped  to  have  been 
to  see  you  all  by  about  this  time,  and  I  hope  yet  to  see 
you.  I  hope  to  spend  an  eternity  with  you  in  the  kingdom 
of  our  Father.  .  .  . 

69.    TO  MRS.  BURNETT. 

Linlathen,  5th  June  1830. 
My  dear  Cousin, — On  Tuesday  morning  the  little 
sufferer  ceased  to  suffer  for  ever.  I  believe  that  the  desire 
of  the  heart  of  God  toward  the  child  has  been  largely 
accomplished.  She  knew  Him,  young  as  she  was,  and  His 
love,  and  that  shod  her  feet  with  the  preparedness  to  walk 
any  way  that  He  called  her  to  walk,  though  it  was  unto 
death.  The  parents  are  very  down-broken,  though  com- 
forted with  unspeakable  comfort.  Little  Georgie's  two 
passages  were  Isaiah  xli.  10  and  xliii.  2.  I  send  them  to 
you.  What  strengthened  her  in  crossing  that  mysterious 
boundary  may  strengthen  you  in  the  way  which  leads  to  it. 
The  Lord  be  very  near  to  you. — Yours  most  affectionately. 

After  Georgie's  death,  the  youngest  child  showing  symp- 
toms of  delicacy,  they  took  him  to  Clifton.  In  vain.  He 
died  there  on  the  26th  October.  Mr.  Erskine  was  living 
at  the  time  with  his  sister  Mrs.  Stirling. 

On  hearing  of  this  death  they  hastened  to  join  their  sister 
at  Clifton.  Leaving  Mrs.  Stirling  there,  Mr.  Erskine  re- 
turned to  Cadder,  and  shut  himself  up  there  in  almost 
entire  solitude,  devoting  himself  to  the  preparation  of  his 
work  on  Election,  which  was  published  in  London,  and 
appeared  before  the  end  of  the  year  1837.1 

70.  TO  MONSIEUR  GAUSSEN. 

Cadder,  Glasgow,  2.\st  Dec.  18.16. 
Dear  Friend  and  Brother, — I  received  your  very 

1  See  Appendix,  No.  III. 
M 


178  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1837. 


affectionate  letter,  relating  to  my  mother's  death,  and  felt 
that  it  came  from  a  brother's  heart.  I  thank  you  for  your 
love,  and  I  thank  Him  who  is  the  fountain  of  love  that  He 
hath  taught  you  to  love.  0  friend,  let  us  seek  to  grow  in 
love  by  entering  deeper  into  our  Father's  love  toAvards  us. 
That  is  the  source,  and  we  cannot  get  it  otherwise  than  by 
receiving  it  from  that  Fountain.  I  answered  your  letter 
immediately,  that  is  to  say,  I  wrote  an  answer  to  it,  but  I 
did  not  send  it.  I  find  it  difficult  sometimes  to  write  to 
you  and  Merle  and  Adolphe  Monod,  because  I  wish  to  say 
things  to  you  all  which  require  more  explanations  than  a 
letter  will  allow,  and  more  mixing  of  love  with  them  than 
ink  will  express.  If  I  were  conscious  of  being  able  to  stand 
unwaveringly  in  the  love  of  Jesus  towards  you  in  convers- 
ing with  you,  I  think  that  I  should  not  delay  many  weeks 
to  be  with  you  in  Geneva.  I  should  like  once  more  also 
to  see  your  mother  and  Merle's,  whose  embrace  to  me,  when 
I  came  from  Hamburg,  from  the  presence  of  Le  brave  Henri, 
I  shall  never  forget.  And  now  since  my  own  dear  mother's 
departure,  I  feel  my  heart  drawn  to  all  mothers,  and  an 
obligation  of  reverence  towards  them  all  laid  upon  me  for 
her  sake,  to  whom  I  cannot  any  longer  pay  it,  in  the  out- 
ward form.  .   .  . 

7  1 .  TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  STIRLING. 

Cadder,  \2th  January  1837. 
My  dearest  Christian, —  .  .  .  Will  James  ask  Strong  if 
he  could  get  me  a  Chrysostom,  the  Benedictine  edition  ]  .  .  . 
You  will  find  Smith 1  most  interesting,  but  your  ignorance 
of  Greek  and  Latin  and  Hebrew  must  interfere  very  much 
with  your  enjoyment  of  him.  I  almost  wonder  that,  con- 
sidering what  is  under  the  lock  and  key  of  these  languages, 
you  do  not  make  the  attempt,  I  read  the  Hebrew  Bible 
1  Smith's  "Select  Discourses." 


jet.  48.  MRS.  BURNETT.  179 

with  greater  ease  now ;  I  am  reading  Genesis — what  a 
wonderful  history  !  What  an  impression  it  leaves  of  there 
being  something  under  that  simplicity  of  an  immense  magni- 
tude and  depth.  This  is  your  season  of  the  year.  Your 
remembrance  of  life  and  death  and  immortality  are  written 
on  all  the  days  of  the  month.  .  .  .  Most  affectionately 
yours,  T.  E. 

72.  TO  MRS.  BURNETT. 

Cadder,  15th  February  1837. 
Dear  Friend, —  . . .  We  straiten  our  own  spiritual  educa- 
tion within  limits  which  God  never  intended,  when  we  con- 
fine our  learning  to  His  dealings  with  ourselves  personally, 
instead  of  partaking  in  the  schooling  of  others,  which,  if  it 
did  nothing  else,  would  exercise  and  increase  the  spirit  of 
love.  I  have  often  intended  to  write  more  to  you  about 
accepting  our  punishment.  I  shall  try  a  little  now.  It 
seems  to  me  clearly  the  meaning  of  the  Bible  that  the 
great  things  which  Jesus  Christ  has  done  for  us,  namely, 
His  coming  into  our  flesh,  and  suffering  and  dying  for  us, 
are  only  then  properly  and  fully  beneficial  to  us  when  they 
are  in  a  measure  wrought  and  reproduced  in  our  hearts  by 
His  Spirit  within  us.  Thus,  though  He  has  tasted  death 
by  the  grace  of  God  for  every  man,  yet  those  only  who  are 
conformed  to  His  death  have  the  full  blessing.  And 
although  it  is  the  blood  of  Christ  that  cleanseth  from  all 
sin,  it  is  only  when  that  blood  is  sprinkled  on  the  conscience 
of  an  individual  that  that  individual  is  purged  by  it,  so  that 
he  is  fit  to  serve  the  living  God — Horn.  vi.  5-8  ;  Heb.  be. 
14-22.  There  is  one  passage  on  the  subject  that  I  would 
particularly  direct  your  attention  to  at  present,  Phil.  iii.  9, 
10,  in  which  the  true  righteousness  is  described — the  right- 
eousness which  is  of  God  by  faith.  Now,  the  main  point 
of  this  righteousness  consists  in  bein^r  made  conformable  to 


ISO  '       LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1837. 

Christ's  death.  Now,  what  was  Christ's  death  ]  It  was  a 
willing  surrender  of  Himself  into  the  hands  of  the  Father, 
knowing  at  the  same  time  that  it  was  the  Father's  pleasure 
to  bruise  Him.  It  was  a  willing  pouring  out  of  all  the 
hopes  of  the  flesh  founded  on  the  idea  of  the  continuance 
of  present  things  ;  it  was  an  acknowledgment  of  the  right- 
eousness of  the  judgment  of  sorrow  and  death,  which,  on 
account  of  transgression,  God  had  laid  on  the  flesh  of  which 
He  had  become  a  partaker.  And  at  the  same  time,  while 
it  was  a  surrender  of  Himself  in  filial  confidence  into  His 
Father's  hands,  it  was  also  in  full  assurance  that  He  was 
to  be  gloriously  rewarded,  by  being  raised  triumphantly 
from  the  dead  as  the  new  Head  and  Fountain  of  life  to  the 
Eace,  by  taking  hold  of  whom  every  child  of  Adam  might 
be  saved.  .  .  . 

Dear  friend,  you  little  can  understand  how  often  I  think 
of  you.  You  represent  to  me  your  father's  house  and  your 
grandfather's  ;  and  now  whilst  I  am  preparing  for  the 
press,  I  never  sit  down  to  write  without  thinking  of  the 
most  affectionate  heart  that  ever  beat.  After  a  small  num- 
ber sacredly  related  to  me,  I  feel  your  father's  friendship 
cleave  closest  to  my  heart. 

I  hope  you  will  understand  what!  have  written,  but  you 
will  need  to  read  it  over  twice  to  do  so — not  that  it  is  diffi- 
cult, but  that  it  differs  from  common  teaching. 

73.    TO  THE  REV.  ALEX.  J.  SCOTT. 

Cadder,  list  April  1S37. 
My  dear  Friend, — I  am  much  obliged  to  Mr.  Maurice 
for  sending  me  these  letters,1  which  contain  much  precious 
matter.  I  do  not  think  I  ever  saw  an  example  of  so  high 
an  appreciation  of  objective  and  formal  Christianity  joined 
with  such  a  true  sense  of  the  value  of  what  is  subjective. 

1  Forming  the  volume  on  The  Kingdom  of  Christ. 


JET.  48.  REV.  ALEX.  J.   SCOTT.  181 

In  fact,  no  one  can  value  the  objective  correctly  who  does 
not  know  the  value  of  the  subjective ;  for  it  is  the  sub- 
jective only  that  is  valuable,  and  the  other  is  valuable  as 
conducting  to  it.  I  ought  to  have  written  to  you  long 
ago.  Your  letter  to  me  whilst  I  was  yet  at  Clifton  was 
very  interesting  to  me,  and  I  am  happy  to  think  that  the 
same  perception  (and  sensation  too)  of  the  power  and  life 
of  the  argument  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  is  still  con- 
tinuing with  you,  as  I  judge  from  my  sister's  account  of 
the  Sunday  that  they  passed  at  Woolwich. 

I  am  getting  on  very  slowly  with  my  work,  but  I  am 
getting  on.  I  often  feel  fettered  by  not  feeling  myself 
permitted  more  plainly  and  fully  to  introduce  the  final 
purpose  of  God  towards  all  men,  as  the  explanation  of  His 
present  dealings  with  them.  For  instance,  I  am  at  this 
moment  at  the  expression,  "  Shall  the  thing  formed  say  to 
Him  that  formed  it?"  etc.  Now  I  believe  that  this  word 
is  intended  as  a  general  reference  to  the  29th  chapter  of 
Isaiah  (which  speaks  of  the  punishment  of  Israel,  and  the 
sin  which  was  the  cause  of  it),  where  something  like  it 
appears  at  verse  16,  and  that  there  is  a  twofold  meaning 
intended.  1st,  Wilt  thou  think  of  blinding  God  with  thy 
vain  reasonings,  as  thou  wouldst  do  to  one  of  thy  fellow- 
creatures,  forgetting  that  thy  Maker  sees  in  thee  that  which 
thou  thyself  art  conscious  of,  namely,  that  thou  hast  been 
living  in  a  resistance  to  His  will  %  Shall  the  thing  formed 
speak  a  lie  to  him  who  knows  all  about  it  1  And  secondly. 
And  now  that  thou  hast  corrupted  thyself,  wilt  thou  dis- 
pute with  thy  Creator  about  the  best  way  of  dealing  with 
thee  for  purging  thee  and  bringing  thee  back  ]  The  end 
of  chapter  xxviii.  belongs  to  the  same  subject,  indeed  the 
whole  chapter.  The  Potter  in  Jeremiah  xviii.  is  to  the 
same  purpose.  With  what  perfect  confidence  can  we  look 
upon  men  lying  in  the  hand  of  God,  even  whilst  He  is 


182  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1S37. 

acting  towards  them  as  an  executioner,  if  we  really  re- 
cognise as  true  that  "  all  the  fruit  is  to  take  away  sin,"  and 
that  finally  this  fruit  shall  assuredly  appear.  The  stoppage 
of  the  process  for  the  individual,  whilst  it  is  going  on  only 
for  the  race,  is  a  heart-breaking  thought. 

I  have  been  living  perfectly  alone  since  ever  I  returned 
from  Clifton.  I  took  influenza  almost  immediately,  and 
have  been  confined  a  tolerably  close  prisoner  till  the  pre- 
sent time,  in  a  house  full  of  remembrances  and  shadows, 
but  inhabited  only  by  myself  and  two  or  three  servants, 
with  whom  I  have  the  fellowship  of  great  kindness.  I  have 
been  reading  Plato  with  immense  interest  and  astonishment. 
In  Gorgias  I  find  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement  in  its  prin- 
ciple applied  to  the  conscience,  better  than  in  any  religious 
book  I  ever  read  :  I  mean  the  principle  of  "  accepting 
punishment,"  which  is  the  fond  of  the  doctrine.  I  have 
also  been  reading  Augustine  with  pleasure,  and  finding  in 
him  not  only  living  water,  but  also  many  things  in  his 
forms  of  thought  and  interpretation,  much  more  real  and 
less  conventional  than  the  system  of  those  who  have  built 
upon  his  foundation. — Yours  affectionately,  T.  E. 

74.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  STIRLING. 

C adder,  Friday,  23d  June  1837. 
...  I  propose,  as  soon  as  I  have  finished  my  book  and 
received  Davie  home,  to  go  south.  I  am  writing  my  con- 
clusion, and  I  find  it  very  difficult  to  say  what  I  wish  to 
say,  without  giving  more  offence  than  is  necessary.  From 
the  way  in  which  the  first  half  of  the  book  was  written — 
l>y  fits  and  starts — I  am  afraid  that  it  will  have  very  great 
faults  as  a, work.  It  is  also  deficient  in  arrangement  and 
in  proportion  ;  which  will  make  it  drag  in  the  reading,  to 
all  except  those  who  are  really  interested  in  the  subject. 
And  then  it  is,   throughout,  in   direct  opposition  to   the 


,et.  48.  MRS.  STIRLING.  183 

received  views  of  Christianity.  So  that  I  cannot  doubt 
but  that  the  most  truly  religious  people  in  the  land  will 
be  startled,  and  even  shocked,  by  many  things  in  it.  And 
then  there  is  not  a  break  or  a  chapter  in  the  whole  book ; 
it  goes  on  as  if  in  one  sentence,  through  550  pages  ;  which 
of  itself  would  make  even  the  most  interesting  book  heavy 
and  dull.  .  .  . 

75.  TO  THE  SAME. 

Cadder,  28th  July  1837. 
My   dearest  Christian, — .  .  .  Yesterday  I  read  an 
article  in  a  late  Number  of  the  Quarterly  on   Cathedral 
Establishments.     It  is  written  by  one  who  is  both  a  sweet 
singer  and  a  wise  man  of  Babylon.     There  is  much  in  it 
which  Burke  himself  might  have  written  ;  but  it  proves 
that,  although   the   views   and   intentions   of  the   Church 
party  are  most  disinterested  and  patriotic — and  religious, 
I  may  add, — yet  these  views  are  most  markedly  confined 
to  the  improvement  of  the  flesh,  and  the  building  up  of 
the  national  character,  by  the  outward  operation  of  institu- 
tions.    The  Church  of  England  is  a  beautiful  thing,  but 
it  is  very  unlike  the  carpenter's   Son  and  the  fishermen 
of  Galdee.     In  these  latter  was  exhibited  the  power  of 
spiritual  truth,  and  of  faith,  which,  in  the  absence  of  all 
outward  support,  took  hold  of  God.     In  the  former  there 
is  a  wise  and  well-proportioned  combination  of  outward 
supports.    And  accordingly  the  advocates  of  the  Church  of 
England  always  go  back  to  the  Jewish  theocracy  as  their 
model,  forgetting  that  that  was  a  type  of  the  spirit  rising 
out  of  the  crucified  flesh.     And  yet,  as  a  political  event,  I 
should  regard  the  overthrow  of  the  Church  of  England  as 
the  opening  of  floodgates  to  let  the  universal  confusion  on 
the  nation.     The  Lord  is  our  shepherd,  we  shall  not  lack. 
.  .  . — Most  affectionately  yours,  T.  E. 


1S4  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  i8«>. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

Doctrinal  Letters. 

To  an  unknown  correspondent  who  desired  to  know 
Mr.  Erskine's  views  as  to  the  Sacrifice  of  Christ,  the 
following  letter  was  addressed  : — 

76.    EXTRACT  FROM  A  LETTER. 

Jan.  15,  1S30. 

The  virtue  of  Christ's  sacrifice  is  intimately  connected 
with  His  being  the  root  of  the  humanity.  He  did  not  take 
hold  of  a  branch,  He  took  the  very  root.  He  came  into 
the  place  which  Adam  had  occupied.  He  came  into  that 
place  where  the  sap  of  the  tree  was  as  in  its  fountain. 

He  became  the  heart  where  all  the  blood  was.  And 
when  He  offered  Himself  as  a  sacrifice,  and  then  entered 
the  heavenly  holy  place,  with  His  blood  in  His  hands,  He 
presented  not  the  blood  of  an  individual,  but  the  blood  of 
the  race — the  heart-blood.  He  said,  The  penalty  pro- 
nounced upon  the  humanity  was  death  ;  and  here  the 
penalty  has  its  execution,  for  this  is  the  life-blood  of  the 
humanity — the  life-blood  of  the  heart  drained  out — the 
sap  of  the  root  drained  out.  Well,  but  what  of  this  ? 
As  far  as  Christ  was  merely  the  representative  (although 
a  full  representative)  of  the  whole  humanity,  His  death  as 
a  sacrifice  could  not  be  a  reason  or  ground  for  bestowing  a 
blessing  on  the  humanity.     The  old   corrupted    sap  was 


jet.  42.  THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHRIST.  185 

strained  out  under  the  penalty,  and  in  fulfilment  of  the 
penalty  ;  but  this  was  no  more  than  what  was  due,  it  was 
bare  right.  And  the  fulfilment  of  this  penalty  contained 
no  reason  in  it  why  a  new  sap  should  be  poured  in,  to 
carry  life  and  health  through  those  veins  which  had  been 
so  long  the  conveyers  of  poison  through  all  the  branches. 
The  great  secret  is,  He  was  in  the  world,  but  He  was  not 
of  the  world.  He  was  in  our  fallen  nature.  He  took  part 
of  the  same  flesh  and  blood  of  which  the  children  partook, 
but  He  sinned  not.  He  fulfilled  all  righteousness.  He 
kept  the  Law.  And  as  the  curse  came  through  the  first 
Adam  in  token  of  God's  abhorrence  of  sin,  so  it  behoved 
that  the  blessing  should  come  in  token  of  God's  love  of 
righteousness. 

"Well,  it  was  He  who  entered  into  the  root  of  the  fallen 
tree  of  human  nature,  poured  out  His  life  an  offering  for 
sin,  even  the  life  and  heart-blood  of  the  human  nature. 
He  Himself  as  an  individual  also  had  fulfilled  all  right- 
eousness ;  not  being  subject  to  the  penalty,  but  being  the 
Head  of  the  fallen  family,  He  freely  subjected  Himself  to 
the  penalty,  and  thus  acknowledged  the  justice  of  the 
sentence  on  the  family.  He  put  to  His  seal  that  God  was 
righteous  in  his  judgment,  and  that  this  universal  view 
was  no  more  than  sin  deserved. 

And  He  did  all  this  and  suffered  all  this,  that  God's 
holiness  might  be  fully  manifested,  and  honoured,  and 
vindicated  in  the  exposure  and  condemnation  of  the  sin- 
fulness of  sin  in  the  flesh  on  the  human  nature,  and  that 
thus  the  barrier  might  be  removed  which  dammed  up  the 
love  of  God,  and  prevented  it  from  flowing  freely  forth  on 
the  sinful  race. 

In  all  this  doing  and  suffering  Jesus  gave  such  glory  to 
God,  He  so  met  and  fulfilled  the  desires  of  God's  heart, 
the  longings  of  His  love,  and  the  purity  of  His  holiness — 


180  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKTNE.  1832. 

He  so  declared  the  righteousness  of  God  in  condemning  sin 
and  in  forgiving  the  sinner, — that  it  became  God,  as  the 
God  of  holy  love,  to  bestow  the  blessing  through  Him, 
that  is,  to  make  Him  the  foundation  of  a  new  life  to  that 
nature  which  He  had  assumed,  and  for  which  He  had  made 
atonement. 

And  that  life  is  nothing  less  than  the  very  life  which  is 
in  the  Father,  and  was  manifested  in  the  Son.  That  life 
is  the  Holy  Spirit. 

In  the  summer  of  1832  Monsieur  Gaussen  visited  this 
country  and  spent  most  of  his  time  in  Scotland  with  Mr. 
Erskine  at  Linlathen  and  at  Cadder.  The  one  was  in  the 
full  fervour  of  his  zeal  for  those  wider  views  of  the  love 
of  God,  the  holding  of  which  had  so  lately  brought  down 
deposition  upon  his  friend  Mr.  Campbell.  The  other  was 
firmly  attached  to  the  old  Genevan  faith.  What  to  the  one 
were  confining,  cramping  fetters,  to  the  other  were  the 
needful  links  by  which  a  coherent,  compact,  consistent 
system  of  divine  truth  was  bound  together.  What  seemed 
to  the  one  to  be  a  mere  fabric  of  human  thought  imposed 
upon  the  representations  given  in  Holy  Writ,  obscuring  the 
direct  and  full  perception  of  God's  love  to  all  men  in 
Christ,  the  other  looked  upon  as  the  faithful  setting  forth 
of  the  divinely  instituted  mode  by  which  the  sinner  was 
to  be  reconciled  to  God,  and  brought  into  His  fellowship 
and  likeness.  Lively  discussions  between  the  two  ensued. 
Soon  after  Monsieur  Gaussen's  departure  the  following 
letter  was  despatched  to  Geneva  : — 

77.    TO  MONSIEUR  GAUSSEN. 

(Postmark;  7  th  Dec.  1832.) 
My  dear  Brother, — Although  I  have  had  much  enjoy- 
ment in  meeting  you  once  more  in  this  world,  yet  I  have 


jet.  44.  M.   GAUSS  EM.  1ST 

also  suffered  much,  chiefly  because  I  am  sensible  that  in 
witnessing  for  God's  truth  to  you,  I  often  sinned  against 
the  law  of   love  and  meekness  and    patience.     May  the 
Lord  forgive  the  sin,  and  mercifully  overrule,  so  that  it 
may  not  act  in  your  mind  as  a  reason  against  any  truth 
which  you  heard  from  me.     May  the  good  Lord  give  you 
the  spirit  of  a  little  child  in  waiting  upon  Him  for  light 
on  those  things  which  were  the  subjects  of  our  conversa- 
tion.    My  dear  brother,  it  appears  to  me  clear  from  Scrip- 
ture that  the  blessing  which  God  holds  out  to  man  through 
the  work  of  redemption  is  a  real  and  substantial  restoration 
to  the  image  of   God,  which  is    to    be  effected    by  man 
becoming  the  habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit  (Eph. 
iv.  24,  ii.  22,  and  2  Cor.  vi.  16).     This  is  not  a  fictitious 
righteousness,  for  then  it  would  be  also  a  fictitious  blessed- 
ness, but  it  is  a  real  conformity  to  the  will  of  God.     This 
is  the  mercy  which  God    promised  from  the    beginning, 
"  that  He  would  grant  unto  us  that  we,  being  delivered 
from  the  hand  of  our  enemies,  might  serve  Him  without  fear 
in  holiness  and  righteousness  before  Him  all  the  days  of  our 
life"  (Luke  i.  72-75).     See  to  the  same  purpose,  Acts  iii. 
26  ;  and  amongst  innumerable  passages  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment let  me  specially  direct  your  attention  to  Jeremiah 
xxxi.   33,  and    to    Ezekiel    xxxvi.    25,    26,   which    most 
strikingly  declare  this  truth.     And  there  is  but  one  kind 
of  true  righteousness,  namely,  the  character  of  God,  for 
"  none  is  good  save  one,  that  is,  God  "  (Luke  xviii.  1 9), 
and  therefore,  in  order  that  a  man  should  be  righteous  or 
good,  he  must  have  God  dwelling  in  him  ;  and  thus  Paul 
Avrites,  "  that  the  righteousness  of  the  law  is  fulfilled  only  in 
those  who  walk  not   after  the  flesh  but  after  the  Spirit" 
which  is  God  dwelling  in  man  (Rom.  viii.  4).     That  the 
righteousness  which    God    desires  to  see  in  us  is  a  real 
substantial  thing    is    manifest    also   from    those    passages 


188  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1832. 


which  speak  of  the  judgment  to  come;  thus  Rom.  ii. .6, 
2  Cor.  v.  10  ;  read  also  to  the  same  purpose  1  John  ii.  29, 
iii.  7,  8,  9,  10.  "  Christ  came  not  to  destroy  the  law,  but 
to  fulfil"  (Matt.  v.  17).  It  is  quite  manifest  that  there 
can  be  no  true  blessedness  without  this  true  righteousness, 
and  that  the  fulfilment  of  that  word,  "Enter  into  the  joy 
of  thy  Lord"  (Matt.  xxv.  21),  requires  the  fulfilment  of 
those  other  words,  "  partakers  of  His  holiness,"  and  "  par- 
takers of  the  divine  nature"  (Heb.  xii.  10;  2  Peter  i.  4). 
And  thus  we  are  brought  to  that  mighty  thing  which  is 
the  great  object  through  all  the  Bible,  namely,  the  mystery 
of  godliness,  the  wonder  of  ungodly  creatures  becoming 
godly,  the  manifestation  of  God  in  the  flesh,  which  is  the 
true  restoration  of  the  image  of  God  to  man. 

When  man  hears  of  such  a  perfect  righteousness,  instead 
of  rejoicing  at  the  tidings  of  it,  he  is  quite  cast  down,  say- 
ing, How  am  I  ever  to  arrive  at  it  1  Has  not  God  said, 
"  The  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against  God,  and  is  not  sub- 
ject to  the  law  of  God,  neither  indeed  can  be  "1  This  fear 
and  dejection  arise  from  his  ignorance  of  God's  righteous- 
ness, for  he  thinks  that  he  has  to  build  up  this  perfect 
character  for  himself  before  he  is  entitled  to  have  any  con- 
fidence in  God ;  and  as  he  feels  his  inability  to  come  up 
to  this  high  standard,  he  either  endeavours  to  lower  the 
standard  of  duty  down  to  what  he  believes  himself  capable 
of,  which  is  the  antinomianism  of  the  Sadducee,  or  else  he 
substitutes  a  doctrine  in  its  place,  or  rather  the  perversion 
of  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  because  he  thinks 
it  easier  to  believe  something  than  to  have  the  perfect 
righteousness  in  reality,  which  is  the  antinomianism  of  the 
Pharisee.  The  Sadducee  supposes  that  he  is  to  open  the 
door  of  his  Father's  house,  which  has  been  shut  against 
him,  by  doing  certain  moral  duties  ;  the  Pharisee  thinks  to 
open  it  by  certain  religious  opinions ;  whereas  the  blessed 


JET.  44- 


M.   GAUSS  EN.  189 


truth  is,  that  God  has  Himself  opened  the  door  by  rending 
the  veil  of  the  flesh  of  Jesus,  and  now  calls  every  sinner, 
not  to  the  task  of  opening  the  door,  hut  to  the  privilege  of 
entering  by  the  opened  and  blood-sprinkled  door,  and  of 
looking  to  God  as  a  Father  indeed,  and  of  being  a  member 
of  His  family,  partaking  in  all  the  interests  and  prospects 
of  the  family,  namely,  the  advancement  of  Christ's  kingdom 
on  earth,  and  the  expectation  of  the  coming  glory.  This 
is  the  right  place  for  a  man  to  be  in,  c'est  it  dire,  in  his 
Father's  family,  and  occupied  with  his  Father's  interests ; 
this  is  his  right  place,  the  place  for  which  he  was  created 
and  redeemed ;  this  is  his  righteousness,  and  in  him  is  ful- 
filled the  word  spoken  in  Luke  i.  74,  75,  and  in  Acts  iii. 
26.  But  now,  is  this  righteousness  to  be  the  foundation 
of  his  confidence  1  So  far  from  it,  that  this  righteousness 
can  only  be  produced  by  a  confidence  already  existing. 
Confidence  is  the  root  of  everything  good  in  man,  and  as 
it  thus  precedes  everything  good  in  man,  it  cannot  be 
founded  on  anything  in  man,  but  must  be  founded  on 
something  out  of  man  (au  dehors  de  Vhomme).  And  what  is 
it  then  that  man's  confidence  is  to  be  founded  on  1  God. 
God  has  revealed  Himself  as  the  foundation  of  the  sinner's 
confidence,  and  now  in  Christ  He  invites  and  commands  all 
the  sinners  of  the  earth  to  give  Him  their  confidence,  be- 
cause He  is  worthy  of  their  confidence,  "  having  made  Him 
who  knew  no  sin  to  become  sin  for  them,  that  they  might 
become  the  righteousness  of  God  in  Him"  (2  Cor.  v.  21). 
God  is  the  blessedness  of  the  creature,  and  the  punishment 
of  sin  in  the  creature  is  to  be  shut  out  or  cut  off  from  God ; 
and  as  the  punishment  is  pronounced  in  these  words, 
"  Depart,  ye  cursed,"  so  the  forgiveness  of  sin  is  pronounced 
in  the  words,  "Return  unto  me,  for  I  have  redeemed  you." 
No  creature  which  had  sinned  could  have  any  right  to 
come  to  God,  or  to  enjoy  God,  or  to  trust  in  God,  unless 


100  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1832. 

God  had  put  away  that  condemnation  of  "  Depart,  ye 
cursed,"  which  is  due  to  every  sinner,  and  had  said, "  Come 
unto  me  all  ye  that  labour,"  etc.;  but  God  is  saying  during 
this  day  of  grace  to  all  sinners,  "  Come  unto  me,"  thus 
assuring  them  that  they  may  well  put  their  confidence  in 
Him,  because  He  loves  them,  and  confirming  this  to  them 
by  revealing  to  them  the  blood  and  resurrection  of  Jesus 
as  the  ground  on  which  this  invitation  is  addressed  to  all 
men.  God  laid  on  Jesus  the  iniquities  of  us  all,  Jesus  died 
under  this  weight,  and  God  raised  Him  from  the  dead, 
thus  declaring  sin  condemned  and  punished  and  the  sinner 
freed.  On  this  ground  it  is  that  God  says  to  every  sinner, 
"  Trust  in  God."  Trust  in  Him  as  your  Father,  your  guide, 
your  guard,  your  everlasting  rest.  Take  no  step  without 
Him,  take  no  joy  without  Him.  Let  Him  be  your  hope, 
your  only  hope,  not  that  by  thus  hoping  in  Him  you  are 
to  make  Him  what  He  was  not  before,  but  that  by  know- 
ing what  He  is  to  you,  you  may  be  blessed  in  Him.  "  God 
hath  raised  Jesus  from  the  dead,  and  given  Him  glory,  afin 
que  our  faith  and  hope  may  be  in  God."  Those  who  know 
what  God  meant  when  He  raised  Jesus  from  the  dead  have 
faith  and  hope  in  God,  and  those  who  are  without  faith 
and  hope  in  God  are  those  who  do  not  know  the  mind  of 
God  declared  in  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  (1  Peter  i.  21). 
"  It  is  life  eternal  to  know  God  as  revealed  in  Christ,"  be- 
cause it  is  in  knowing  Him  that  we  enjoy  Him  and  become 
partakers  of  His  nature  (2  Peter  i.  2,  3,  4).  Every  man 
who  knows  God  truly  has  eternal  life  in  that  knowledge, 
and  every  man  who  has  not  eternal  life  is  without  it,  in 
consequence  of  his  ignorance  of  God  (Eph.  iv.  18).  Now 
surely  it  would  be  great  dishonour  to  God  to  suppose  that 
we  change  Him  by  our  knowledge  or  ignorance ;  we  must 
therefore  acknowledge  that  the  heart  of  God  towards  every 
man   is   such  that,  if  the  man  knew  it,  he  could  not  but 


*T.  44.  M.   GAUSSEN.  191 

rejoice  in  it ;  for  how  else  could  it  be  life  to  him  to  know 
God  1  What  then  is  to  make  me  rejoice  in  God  1  A  sight 
of  God's  heart  as  loving  me,  a  knowledge  of  God's  good- 
will concerning  me  1  And  how  am  I  to  get  this  sight  and 
this  knowledge  ]  Jesus  Christ  hath  come  forth  from  the 
bosom  of  the  Father  to  show  us  the  heart  of  God.  "  He 
by  the  grace  of  God  tasted  death  for  every  man  "  (Heb.  ii. 
9) ;  and  then  He  said,  "  He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen 
the  Father."  It  was  this  that  made  Jesus  "  the  light  of 
the  world."  He  declared  the  Father  to  the  world,  to  the 
end  that  whosoever  knoweth  the  Father  through  Him  might 
live  by  that  knowledge.  He  came  to  seek  and  to  save  the 
lost,  by  declaring  to  them  the  Father's  heart,  and  as  soon 
as  they  know  that  heart  they  are  glad,  they  rejoice  in  sal- 
vation ;  but  whilst  they  continue  ignorant  of  God's  heart 
they  continue  to  be  without  eternal  life  in  them.  He  came 
to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost.  God  raised  Him  from  the 
dead  and  gave  Him  glory,  that  the  lost  might  be  saved  by 
putting  their  faith  and  hope  in  God.  These  lost  souls, 
that  is,  all  men,  are  called  to  put  their  faith  and  hope  in 
God ;  they  are  called  to  trust  in  God,  not  because  they 
have  faith,  but  because  God  has  raised  Christ  from  the 
dead.  A  poor  sinner  rising  from  the  murder  of  his  brother 
is  desired  and  invited  to  trust  in  God,  to  see  God's  for- 
giveness in  that  word,  "  Come  unto  me,"  and  to  put  his 
faith  and  hope  in  God,  because  He  hath  raised  Jesus  from 
the  dead.  "  God  is  the  Saviour  of  all  men,  specially  of 
those  who  believe"  (1  Tim.  iv.  10).  God's  heart  is  a  heart 
of  forgiving  love  to  us  before  we  believe,  but  we  cannot 
enjoy  God,  which  is  full  salvation,  without  knowing  or 
believing  what  His  heart  is  to  us. 

You  seem  to  me  to  rest  not  on  what  God  is,  but  rather 
on  what  God  has  said,  as  distinct  from  God.  Before  the 
coming  of  Christ  men  might  have  made  a  distinction  be- 


192  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1832 

tween  God  and  His  Word ;  but  now  such  a  distinction  is 
Socinianism,  for  God  has  declared  that  the  Word  is  God. 
When  it  is  not  God  Himself  that  we  meet  and  trust  in  His 
Word,  we  are  breaking  the  second  commandment.  Faith 
has  become  to  the  intellectual  Protestant  churches  what 
the  idols  of  silver  and  gold  were  to  the  Jewish  and  Popish 
churches.  Why  is  a  poor  sinner  to  trust  in  God  1  Is  it 
because  God  is  good,  or  because  he  has  faith  1  Am  I  to 
trust  in  God  because  "  God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the 
world  unto  Himself,  not  imputing  unto  them  their  tres- 
passes," or  because  I  am  justified  by  faith  ]  Read  the  78th 
Psalm,  marking  specially  verses  7,  22,  35.  God  was  always 
"  their  Rock  and  their  Redeemer,"  but  whilst  they  believed 
it  not,  they  put  away  His  salvation — (as  the  sun  is  always 
our  light,  but  when  we  shut  our  eyes  we  are  in  darkness). 
He  was  always  their  loving,  forgiving  Father,  even  in  His 
punishments  ;  they  were  like  the  famine  in  the  far  country, 
sent  to  bring  back  the  prodigal  to  his  father's  house.  Do 
you  not  believe  that  the  heart  of  God  does  indeed  grieve 
and  yearn  over  every  sinner  that  continues  at  a  distance 
from  Him  1  and  is  not  that  grief  the  grief  of  love,  which 
desires  the  holy  blessedness  of  the  sinner]  Yes,  it  is  the 
grief  of  love.  God  created  man  to  be  the  image  of  God, 
and  holiness  and  blessedness.  And  God  did  this,  because 
God  is  love.  And  this  purpose  of  God  towards  man 
hath  not  changed,  but  has  followed  every  individual  man 
through  every  moment  of  his  life,  desiring  that  he  should 
yet  be  the  image  of  God.  And  God  hath  revealed 
this  purpose  fully  in  Jesus  Christ,  who  by  the  grace 
of  God  tasted  death  for  every  man,  and  was  raised  from 
the  dead  into  glory,  that  every  man  might  have  con- 
fidence in  God's  purpose,  and  might  yield  himself  unto 
God  to  have  that  purpose  accomplished  in  him.  This 
restoration  of  the  image  is  salvation.     Salvation  is  not  for- 


y£T.  44.  M.   GAUSSEN.  193 

giveness  of  sin ;  it  is  not  the  remission  of  a  penalty ;  it  is 
not  a  safety.  No,  it  is  the  blessed  and  holy  purpose  of 
God's  love  accomplished  in  the  poor  fallen  creature's  re- 
storation to  the  divine  image.  And  as  this  could  only  be 
effected  by  God  dwelling  in  man,  so  the  work  of  Christ  has 
been  God's  taking  possession  of  a  part  of  the  fallen  nature 
and  uniting  Himself  to  it,  without  separating  it  from  the 
rest  of  the  mass  of  the  nature,  and  in  that  part  working 
perfect  righteousness,  and  so  ordering  it  that  this  part  of 
the  nature  so  possessed  by  God  should  become  the  new 
root  and  head  of  man,  from  which  the  Holy  Spirit,  given 
to  Him  without  measure,  might  flow  forth,  seeking  entrance 
into  every  part  of  the  nature  wherever  it  can  find  an  open 
heart.  And  to  this  end  is  the  news  of  God's  love  in  this 
great  work  declared  to  men,  that  they  hearing  it  may  have 
confidence  in  Him  who  hath  thus  loved  them,  and  so  open 
their  hearts  to  let  in  His  Spirit.  So  we  have  no  need  now 
to  go  out  of  our  nature  to  meet  God,  and  to  get  the  eternal 
life  (which  is  God's  life),  for  God  is  in  our  own  flesh,  and 
the  eternal  life  is  in  our  own  flesh,  and  Ave  have  but  to 
know  this  loving  God,  and  the  longings  of  His  heart  over 
us,  and  to  give  Him  our  confidence,  in  order  to  receive  His 
Spirit  into  us. 

And  Christ's  work  of  atonement  was  perfected  by  His 
death,  not  only  testifying  the  love  of  God  to  every  man  to 
be  a  love  which  would  die  for  every  man,  but  also  testifying 
that  when  God  would  restore  man  He  would  not  restore 
that  natural  life  in  which  man  had  sinned,  He  would  not 
remove  his  condemnation  from  that  life  on  which  He  had 
pronounced  sentence  of  death,  and  that  He  could  not  look 
on  man  well  pleased  until  man  had  consented  to  the 
righteousness  of  this  sentence  and  had  willingly  given  up 
that  natural  life  which  had  rebelled  against  God.  Tin- 
man Christ  Jesus  did  this,  and  thus  He  manifested  the 

N 


194  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1832. 

express  image  of  the  Father,  and  so  He  was  raised  to  be 
the  second  Adam,  the  mediator  between  God  and  man, 
between  the  God-nature  and  the  man-nature.  It  is  upon 
this  ground  that  every  man  is  invited  and  demanded  to 
delight  in  God,  and  to  drink  out  of  the  fountain  of  life 
which  is  in  His  love.  Now,  can  it  be  said  with  propriety 
that  any  creature  is  a  condemned  creature,  whilst  it  is 
commanded  as  well  as  permitted  to  enjoy  such  a  God  as 
this,  and  to  drink  out  of  such  a  fountain  as  this  ]  Can  any 
creature  be  said  to  be  unforgiven  for  whose  blessedness  God 
is  at  this  very  moment  working  with  a  love  passing  know- 
ledge %  0  fortunati  nimium,  sua  si  bona  norint  !  Read  the 
107th  Psalm.  The  only  true  condemnation  consists  in  being 
shut  out  from  that  fountain  to  which  we  are  all  urged  and 
entreated  to  come  that  we  may  drink  abundantly. 

And  surely  when  persons  can  acknowledge  that  God  has 
given  Christ  for  men  and  to  men,  and  yet  refuse  to 
acknowledge  that  the  Spirit  has  been  also  given  as  widely, 
they  forget  that  Christ  is  God,  and  that  in  Him  not  one 
person  only  of  the  Trinity,  but  the  whole  Trinity,  was 
manifested.  I  feel  that  to  separate  between  the  work  of 
Christ  and  the  character  of  God  is  Socinianism.  So  also  I 
feel  that  to  suppose  Christ  given  and  not  the  Spirit  is  not 
less  Socinianism.  It  is  denying  that  the  Word  is  God. 
Do  you  not  believe  that  every  man  is  in  a  very  different 
condition  now  from  what  he  Avould  have  been  had  Christ 
not  come  into  the  world  ?  The  word  to  every  man,  if 
Christ  had  not  come,  would  have  been,  "Depart,  thou 
cursed,"  and  now,  in  consequence  of  Christ's  coming,  the 
word  to  every  man  is,  "  Come  to  the  waters,"  "  Come  unto 
me,  thou  weary  one,  and  I  will  give  thee  rest."  My  brother, 
if  the  condemnation  consist  in  the  word  "  DejDart,"  tell  me 
what  is  contained  in  the  word  "  Come."  When  Paul 
declared  this  change  of  address,  was  it  too  much  to  call  it 


JET.  44. 


M.   GAUSS  EN.  105 


the  forgiveness  of  sins  1  Acts  xiii.  38.  Compare  this  verse 
and  the  following  one  with  1  Timothy  iv.  10.  These  two 
verses  are  a  commentary  on  the  two  words  in  Timothy, 
"  The  Saviour  of  all  men,  specially  of  those  who  believe." 
No  man  could  approach  God  through  Christ,  unless  Christ 
had  eternal  life  or  the  Holy  Spirit  for  him,  for  no  man  can 
come  to  God  except  in  the  Holy  Spirit ;  thus  every  man 
has  eternal  life  in  Chiist,  and  he  has  also  the  natural  life  ; 
the  first  of  these  is  holy  and  sinless  and  without  con- 
demnation, and  the  man  who  walks  in  it  is  righteous; 
the  second  is  sinful  and  under  a  condemnation,  and  he  who 
walks  in  it,  whether  he  has  been  a  believer  or  not,  walks 
under  a  condemnation.  God  does  not  change  his  judgment, 
nor  does  He  call  evil  good,  nor  does  He  call  good  evil. 
Abiding  in  the  faith  of  Jesus  is  abiding  in  the  eternal  life 
— leaving  Him  is  falling  under  condemnation.  Beloved 
brother,  this  is  the  concluding  sentence  :  May  the  God  of 
peace  fill  you  with  peace  in  believing,  and  make  you  to 
abound  in  the  knowledge  of  the  love  of  Jesus. 
Eead  2  Peter,  1st  chapter.     Farewell. 

T.  Erskine. 


196  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1837. 


CHAPTER  X. 

Letters  of  183S  and  1839. 

Mr.  Erskine  left  Scotland  at  the  close  of  the  year 
1837,  with  the  intention  of  paying  another  lengthened 
visit  to  the  Continent.  He  lingered  for  three  months  in 
London,  passed  over  in  April  to  Paris,  where  he  remained 
during  May,  June,  and  July,  having  as  his  close  companion 
for  two  of  these  months  the  Rev.  J.  M'Leod  Campbell, 
and  for  a  week  the  pleasure  of  acting  as  escoit  to  Dr. 
Chalmers.  In  October  he  proceeded  to  Switzerland, 
making  a  tour  of  the  Bernese  Alps  with  his  friend  Mr. 
Scott,  and  taking  up  his  abode  at  Geneva,  which  he  did 
not  leave  till  midsummer  of  the  following  year.  The  event 
of  this  period  which  overshadowed  all  others  was  the  death 
of  the  Duchess  de  Broglie,  to  which  several  affecting  allu- 
sions are  made  in  the  letters  which  follow. 

78,  TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  PATERSON. 
Osborne's  Caledonian  Hotel,  Xmas  Day  [1837]. 
My  darling  Davie, — I  am  so  far  on  my  way  to  see 
you,  but  I  shall  be  here  for  a  few  days  yet.  ...  I  arrived 
on  Saturday  night  and  thought  of  going  to  Woolwich  on 
Sunday,  but  I  was  not  quite  up  to  it,  so  I  went  to  the 
church  in  the  Temple,  and  enjoyed  the  peaceful  prayers 
exceedingly.  I  really  prefer  the  Church  of  England  service 
to  any  that  I  know,  it  brings  us  all  so  much  into  one,  and 


jet.  49.  MRS.  STIRLING.  197 


it  makes  the  minister  so  much  the  mouth  and  the  leader  of 
the  people,  instead  of  lifting  him  out  from  the  people,  and 
making  him  the  only  doer  of  anything  in  the  Church.  .  .  . 

79.  TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  STIRLING. 

Shanklin,  mh  Jan.  [1838]. 

My  dearest  Christian, — It  is  wonderful  to  myself 
that  I  have  been  able  to  refrain  so  long  from  writing  to 
you;  I  have  had  so  many  reasons  for  wiiting  to  you,  so 
many  things  to  tell  you,  which  I  knew  would  interest  you. 
Soon  after  I  came  to  London  I  had  a  visit  from  a  Mr. 
Dunn  (perhaps  I  told  you  of  him  before),  who  was  a  friend 
of  Knox  and  Jebb  ;x  he  had  read,  I  believe,  my  book  on 
Election,  and  had  sympathised  with  it  a  good  deal;  he 
thought  that  it  brought  out  something  which  was  wanting 
in  their  system,  namely,  the  necessity  of  the  cross  to  be 
received  and  borne  by  every  one.  He  told  me  that  many 
read  Knox's  book  who  did  not  find  it  condemn  the  most 
worldly  life.  I  think  he  said  that  Lord  Melbourne  had 
liked  it.  It  seems  to  me  to  imply  a  great  defect  in  any 
work  on  religion,  that  it  should  be  able  to  be  read  by 
those  who  walk  without  God,  and  to  be  read  with  pleasure 
by  them.  Mr.  Dunn  agreed  with  me  in  what  I  have  re- 
marked to  you  of  Knox's  ignorance  of  the  meaning  of  the 
Atonement. 

At  Mr.  Dunn's  house  I  met  first  (along  with  Scott)  with 
two  young  men,  sons  of  that  Mr.  Woodford,  an  Irish  clergy- 
man, who  published  a  letter  addressed  to  Lord  Stanley,  in 
which  he  separated  himself  from  those  who  were  complain- 
ing of  the  loss  of  their  tithes,  and  declared  that  he  felt  it 
to  be  a  great  privilege  to  be  put  in  circumstances  by  which 
he  might  prove  to  the  people  that  it  was  not  theirs  but 

1  "  Thirty  Years'  Correspondence  between  John  Jebb,  D.D.,  ami  Alex 
ander  Knox."    1834. 


198  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1838. 

tliera  that  he  sought.  These  young  men  gave  a  most  can- 
did and  conscientious  attention  to  many  striking  things 
which  Scott  said.  Mr.  Dunn,  himself  a  clergyman,  and  in 
the  presence  of  these  two  young  men,  both  clergymen, 
asked  Scott  to  read  and  expound  the  Scriptures.  Another 
day  I  was  at  Dunn's,  hut  without  Scott,  who  was  not  quite 
well,  and  met  the  same  young  men,  and  Maurice,  who  is  a 
very  metaphysical  man ;  I  have  not  got  into  him  yet ;  I 
hope,  when  I  return  to  London,  to  know  him  better.  .  .  . 

80.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  PATERSON. 

Caledonian  Hotel,  Adelphi,  6th  Feb.  1S38. 
Dearest  Davie, — .  .  .  I  hope  James  will  read  the  review 
of  Sir  Walter  Scott's  life  :  I  think  that  the  reading  of  it 
would  urge  him  to  the  reading  of  the  History  of  the  French 
Revolution,  which,  I  am  afraid,  he  will  not  read  without 
some  new  impulse.  I  wish  very  much  that  he  would  make 
conscience  of  reading  them  both ;  I  think  that  it  would  be 
good  for  him — tell  him  so,  with  my  love.  It  is  good,  in 
the  first  place,  to  be  brought  in  contact  with  a  mind  like 
Carlyle's,  so  unconventional  in  all  matters ;  and  I  also  think 
that  it  would  be  good  for  him  to  come  in  contact  with 
some  of  his  deep  elements  of  political  science,  which  in  his 
hands  is  one  with  religious  obligation.  .  .  .  Farewell. — 
Yours  most  lovingly,  T.  Erskine. 

81.   TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  STIRLING. 

Caledonian  Hotel,  Adelphi,  SlJi  Feb.  1838. 
My  dearest  Christian, — I  have  been  returned  from 
Shanklin  about  a  week,  and  I  have  again  got  implicated 
with  engagements  to  meet  or  to  dine  or  to  see.  I  have 
just  been  at  the  British  Museum  with  Scott,  Mrs.  Rich, 
and  Lady  Inglis.  I  was  much  struck  with  the  Elgin 
Marbles  ;  expression  of  countenance  you  have  not — for  you 


JET.  49-  MRS.  STIRLING.  199 

have  no  face  but  one,  Theseus's,  and  that  a  mutilated  one, — 
but  there  is  immense  expression  of  form  and  attitude  and 
movement ;  immense  dignity  and  grace.  The  Egyptian 
remains  are  very  curious — so  ponderous  and  enduring,  and 
generally  so  unbeautiful.  Scott  mentioned  that  the  form 
of  the  old  Egyptian  head  resembles  the  modern  European 
more  than  the  Greek  or  Roman,  and,  phrenologically,  was 
superior  to  them,  as  ours  is  also.  There  is  a  lady's  wig, 
with  the  hair  plaited  beautifully,  in  great  preservation ;  and 
there  is  a  lady  herself  in  a  remarkably  entire  state.  It  is 
wonderful  to  see  these  people  raised  from  their  graves  after 
three  thousand  years.  We  also  saw  Mrs.  Rich's  reliques  of 
Babylon  and  Nineveh  there,  which  recalled  to  her  bypast 
times,  as  you  may  suppose.1  I  like  Lady  Inglis  very  much  ; 
she  is  a  most  true  and  tender-hearted  friend  to  Mrs.  Rich, 
and  she  seems  to  have  a  tender  conscience  towards  God.  I 
have  received  much  kindness  from  Sir  Robert  and  her. 

Good  old  Mr.  Dunn,  whom  I  have  mentioned  to  you 
before,  continues  his  kindness.  I  was  there  dining  yester- 
day. He  was  offered  a  bishopric  once  and  declined  it,  on 
some  conscientious  ground.  Wedgwood  was  there,  and 
Maurice,  who  went  home  with  me  at  night.  .  .  .  Wedgwood 
is  a  delightful  man,  full  of  truth  of  heart  to  God  and  man, 
and  well  endowed  intellectually  also.  However,  although 
there  were  good  materials  for  general  conversation  (for  Scott 
was  there  too),  yet  there  was  none.  We  continued  all 
in  separate  parties,  which  I  always  regret  in  such  cases. 

82.   TO  THE  SAME. 

Caledonian  Hotel,  21th  Feb.  1838. 
My   dearest   Christian, — I   shall   begin   with    your 
question  about  Knox's  view  of  the  Atonement.     The  reason 

1  In  the  year  following  Mrs.  Rich  edited  the  "  Narrative  of  a  Journey  to 
the  Site  of  Babylon  by  Claudius  James  Rich,  her  late  Husband." 


200  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSA'INE.  1838. 

why  I  think  that  he  took  a  wrong  view  of  it  is,  that  fre- 
quently he  repeats  in  the  course  of  his  hook  that  our  con- 
cern is  not  with  what  Christ  did  once  for  all  of  us,  hut 
that  our  concern  is  with  what  may  promote  our  personal 
sanctification.  It  is  evident  from  this  often-repeated 
maxim  of  his,  that  he  did  not  see  that  in  the  atonement — 
that  work  which  Jesus  accomplished  once  for  all  for  men — 
there  is  a  manifestation  of  the  purpose  of  God  towards  us, 
fitted  ahove  all  other  things  to  promote  our  sanctification. 
In  the  atonement,  we  see  a  man  suffering  to  the  full  what 
we  are  called  to  suffer,  and  acknowledging  it  all  to  be  right- 
eous, and  giving  his  back  to  the  smiter,  without  resisting, 
and  submitting  himself  to  the  whole  "will  of  God  in 
thwarting  man's  will,  both  in  doing  and  in  suffering,  and 
then  we  see  this  man  rising  out  from  the  death  so  endured, 
and  ascending  up  into  heaven,  and  saying,  Be  not  afraid 
to  follow  me ;  for  whoso  follows  my  steps  in  patient  obedi- 
ence shall  ascend  up  to  where  I  now  am.  I  don't  think 
that  Knox  saw  that  the  atonement  of  Christ,  besides  being 
a  righteous  reason  with  God  for  bestowing  on  man  the 
participation  in  the  divine  nature,  was  also  the  pattern  of 
all  righteousness  in  man,  and  the  encouragement  to  all 
righteousness  in  man.  It  seems  strange  that  a  thing  should 
be  so  frequently  introduced  in  the  Bible  if  we  have  not 
much  concern  in  it.  I  have  not  the  book  here,  so  that  I 
cannot  refer  to  it,  as  I  should  like  to  do ;  but  you  will  find 
the  maxim  of  which  I  speak  at  the  beginning  of  some  of 
his  more  important  letters  or  essays.  .  .  . — Yours  ever, 

T.  Erskine. 

83.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  STIRLING. 

Hotel  Wagram,  28  Rue  de  Rivoli,  26lh  April  [1838]. 
My   dearest   Christian, — Here   I   am  in  this  great 
Vanity-fair ;  and  my  heart  turns  to  you  as  to  a  reality  of 


«T.  49.  MRS.  PATERS  ON.  201 

sympathy  and  love,  from  the  evident  outsideness  and  show 
and  meaningless  noise  which  is  going  on  in  the  Tuileries, 
outspread  beneath  my  windows  ;  for  I  am  amongst  the 
slates  in  the  top-story  of  a  Hotel  Wagram,  28  Eue  de 
Rivoli,  whence  I  see  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  and  the 
glory  of  them.  And  I  am  endeavouring  to  learn,  from  this 
vantage-ground,  more  fully  the  lesson,  that  he  who  offers 
us  these  things  is  not  to  be  worshipped,  and  that  He  who 
offers  us  Himself,  if  we  will  part  with  all  other  things,  is 
to  be  worshipped.  My  dear  sister,  there  are  few  people 
whose  company  I  could  wish  just  now,  or  to  whom  I  could 
very  cordially  offer  a  room  in  my  house  amongst  my  slates, 
but  you  are  one,  whom  I  could  know  sitting  by  me,  with- 
out being  fatigued  by  the  knowledge,  at  least  for  a  limited 
number  of  hours.  I  say  that,  in  case  you  should  accept — 
you  understand. 

It  is  long  since  I  have  written  to  you — too  long,  con- 
sidering our  near  bond  ;  and  considering  also  that  our 
mother  is  no  more  seen  amongst  us.  Her  image  recurs 
often  to  me.  I  feel  anew  the  blank ;  for  always,  when  I 
was  abroad,  I  felt  that  there  was  one  who  did  not  cease  to 
think  of  me  and  to  pray  for  me,  as  she  was  enabled.  And 
at  that  time  you  had  your  honest-hearted,  loving-hearted, 
cheerful-hearted  husband  to  occupy  you ;  and  Davie  had 
her  sweet  rising  nursery  of  immortal  flowers,  attracting 
her  by  their  mystery  of  love  and  hope  and  fear.  But  now 
it  is  all  changed — a  change  has  come  o'er  the  spirit  of  our 
dream — that  dream  which  will  continue  changeable  and 
troubled,  until  we  awake  up  in  His  likeness,  and  shall  be 
satisfied  with  it.  .  .  .  T.  Eeskine. 

84.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  PATERSON. 

[Paris],  lUh  May  [1838]. 
Dearest  Davie, — .  .  .  So  you  arrived  on  the  3d  of  May, 


202  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1838. 

the  day  that  dear  Ann  arrived  at  her  Father's  house.  How 
time  goes  on  !  How  many  millions  since  then  have  passed 
through  that  strange  dark  passage,  which  she  found  so  full 
of  light.  It  remains  for  us  still  to  pass  through  it ;  and 
the  True  Light,  who  lighted  her  through  it,  is  waiting  to 
be  gracious  to  us  also.  I  thought  you  would  like  Sartor ; 
the  chapter  on  natural  supernaturalism,  Book  iii.  chap. 
viii.,  is  a  wonderful  thing.  .  .  . 

The  Broglies  have  left  Paris,  which  makes  Paris  a  very 
different  place  to  me.  I  had  the  pleasure  and  the  profit 
of  three  weeks  of  her  [the  Duchess's]  society,  however, 
and  found  her  what  I  never  see  nor  saw  anywhere  else. 
Mr.  Campbell  saw  her  twice,  and  was  much  delighted 
with  her.      He  is  certainly  better.  .  .   . 

\7th  May. — .  .  .  I  had  F.  Monod  dining  with  me  yester- 
day ;  a  very  widowed  man  he  is,  and  full  of  sad  yet  sweet 
recollections  of  his  wife.  He  is  to  send  me  a  memoir  of 
her,  containing  her  own  journal,  which  he  says  is  the  most 
interesting  thing,  next  to  the  Bible,  that  ever  he  read.  I 
doubt  not  it  is  so  to  him.  He  had  imbibed  some  doctrinal 
suspicions  of  me,  which  to  a  certain  degree  kept  him  in  a 
defensive  attitude  against  me,  and  made  him  afraid  of 
agreeing  with  me,  lest  he  should  be  caught  in  some  trap. 
He  is  a  good  honest  man,  labouring  faithfully  in  the  Lord's 
vineyard.  .  .  .  His  brother  Adolphe  has  more  of  the  Scott 
and  Eutherfurd  class  of  intellect  than  any  person  that  I 
know  in  France.  ...  T.  Erskine. 

85.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  STIRLING. 

71  Rue  Grenelle,  St.  Germain,  22d  May  1S38. 
Dearest  Christian, — Many  thanks  for  your  long-looked- 
for  letter.     You  know  how  long  the  time  seems,  when  one 
arrives  at  a  new  place,  among  new  persons  and  circum- 
stances.    This  made  me  feel  apprehensive  that  your  letter 


yET.  49.  MRS,  STIRLING.  203 

had  met  some  mischance.     So  you  are  at  CaJder,  and  the 
Patersons  at  Linlathen,  and  I  am  here  ;  but  He  with  Avhom 
we  have  to  do  is  not  far  from  any  one  of  us,  and  our  near- 
ness to  Him  is  our  true  nearness  to  each  other.    The  spiritual 
life  knows  neither  time  nor  space ;  and  it  is  by  living  in  it 
that  we  escape  in  some  measure  from  the  bondage  of  time 
and  space.     It  is  not  by  the  exercise  of  imagination  or  the 
intelligence  that  we  can  get  this  liberty,  of  which  Carlyle 
speaks  so  interestingly  in  one  of  the  concluding  chapters 
of  Sartor ;  but  only  by  living  in  the  spiritual  life,  the  life 
of  the  conscience,  the  life  of  God.  .  .  .  Houstoun  has  had 
relief,  but  he  also,  within  the  last  two  or  three  days,  has  had 
dreadful  returns,  with  more  suffering  than  he  ever  remem- 
bers ;  poor  man,  he  is  an  example  of  meekness  and  patience, 
most  edifying  to  behold.     He  and  Ann  are  very  friendly; 
and  in  spite  of  the  delight  that  I  have  in  my  new  house, 
which  is  a  perfect  palace,  I  am  sorry  to  be  separated  so  far 
from  them  by  my  removal  across  the  river.     I  used  to  go 
there  in  the  evening  and  have  a  causer  with  them  :  and 
now  that  Charles  is  away,  I  was  become  of  more  value  to 
them.      En   revanche,    I    am  near   the    Elgins,    and  near 
Madame  de  B.,  who,  alas !   however,   has  left  town  for 
Normandy  ;  and  near  one  other  of  my  ancient  friends.     I 
love  Lord  Elgin  very  much,  and  the  two  girls,  who  are  as 
fine  creatures  as  ever  I  saw  in  my  life  ;  I  am  not  sure  that 
ever  I  knew  girls  of  their  age  that  I  could  so  readily  make 
companions  of.     Dear  Lady  Augusta1  is  a  perfect  angel. 
Lady  E.  is  full  of  knowledge  and  curiosity  and  discussion, 
and  kindness  to  whomsoever  it  is  needful  ;  she  is  an  up- 
right woman,  who  speaks  the  truth.     Lord  Elgin  is  much 
better,  and  went  to  England  on  Sunday.  I  have  this  morning 
had  a  long  conversation  with  the  French  Protestant  pastor 
of  Bordeaux.     I  spoke  to  him  about  conscience  ;  he  was 

1  Afterwards  Lady  Augusta  Stanley. 


204  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKTXE.  1S38. 


much  struck  by  different  correspondences  which  I  mentioned 
to  him  between  the  outward  recorded  history  of  Christ  and 
the  inward  conscious  history  of  conscience.  .  .  .  Yesterday 
I  had  a  most  affectionate  note  from  Broglie,  another  from 
Madame  Cramer,  from  Geneva,  and  another  from  Guizot, 
thanking  me  for  a  copy  of  Carlyle's  History  of  the  French 
Revolution  which  I  had  sent  him.  All  these  notes  would 
interest  you,  both  on  account  of  the  writers  and  for  their 
substance.  .  .  . — Yours  ever,  T.  Erskine. 

86.    TO  MONSIEUR  GAUSSEN. 
71  Rue  Grenelle,  St.  Germain,  2S^A.  May  1838. 

My  dear  Friend, — Thanks  for  your  welcome.  They 
have  been  indeed  eventful  years,  the  five  years  that  have 
passed  since  we  last  met ;  but  what  years  are  not  eventful 
which  any  man  lives  in  this  wonderful  life  ! — undergoing 
a  training  for  eternity,  invited  to  direct  personal  communion 
with  God,  and  with  the  power  given  him  of  resisting  God 
and  grieving  the  Holy  Spirit,  or  of  causing  joy  in  heaven 
on  account  of  his  repentance.  I  shall  be  most  happy  to 
see  you,  both  here  and  at  Geneva ;  of  course  that  formed 
a  part  of  my  plan  in  coming  to  the  Continent.  I  thank 
you  for  your  hospitable  invitations,  which  I  am  sure  I 
should  have  much  pleasure  in  accepting,  but  I  have  already 
received  an  invitation  from  my  dear  hostess,  Madame 
Cramer,  so  that  if  my  circumstances  allow  me  to  take  up 
my  abode  in  a  private  house,  I  am  engaged  to  her. 

Dear  A.  Monod  is  indeed  a  most  interesting  sufferer. 
God  has  revealed  the  emptiness  of  the  creature  to  him — 
which  is  a  great  revelation — and  the  sufficiency  of  God, 
which  is  still  a  greater  far.  How  many  there  are  who  stop 
short  at  that  first  revelation ! 

I  beg  my  best  regards  to  all  your  family  circle. 

Give  my  love  to  Merle ;   I  was  indeed  happy  to  see  his 


jr:r.  49.  MADAME  DE  BROGUE.  205 

honest  face,  though  but  for  a  few  minutes. — Farewell,  dear 
brother,  yours  affectionately,  T.  ERSKINE. 

87.  TO  MADAME  DE  BROGLIE. 

Eue  de  Grenelle,  St.  Germain,  Paris, 
Ath  June  1838. 
Dear  Friend, —  ...  A  lost  sorrow' is  so  sad  a  thing. 
A  sorrow  in  which  God  has  spoken  to  His  creature,  and 
called  it  to  feel  that  there  is  no  Helper  but  Himself, 
and  that  He  is  there  present  to  comfort,  and  sustain, 
and  bless, — such  a  sorrow  to  be  neglected  and  thrown 
off  by  the  creature,  and  forgotten  as  soon  as  possible, 
is  it  not  wonderful,  and  as  sad  as  wonderful  1  And  it  is 
even  so  with  all  sorrows,  and  all  joys  too,  and  all  events, 
when  we  read  them  aright.  My  dear,  dear  friend,  I  feel 
that  this  is  the  element  of  religion,  there  being  only  one 
thing  deeper,  which  one  thing  is  truly  implied  in  this, 
namely,  our  own  conscious  meeting  with  God  in  the  secret 
of  our  own  hearts,  and  knowing  Him  there,  our  own  per- 
sonal God,  loving  us,  longing  over  us  with  fatherly  long- 
ings, and  speaking  to  us  so  that  we  may  hear  and  know 
His  voice,  and  distinguish  it  from  all  the  other  voices 
within  and  without  us.  "  The  slothful  man  roasteth  not 
that  which  he  took  in  hunting,  but  the  substance  of  the 
diligent  man  is  precious"  (Prov.  xii.  27).  All  the  circum- 
stances which  God  appoints  for  us  contain  in  them  the 
bread  of  life,  which  is  the  will  of  God ;  but  we  often  re- 
ceive the  circumstances,  and  even  acknowledge  that  this 
precious  thing  is  in  them,  without  converting  it  into  nour- 
ishment for  our  souls  :  "we  roast  not  that  which  we  take 
in  hunting."  And  our  fault  in  this  respect  seems  to  me 
always  to  be  the  consequence  of  our  not  listening.  Lis- 
tening is  connected  with  patience  and  waiting.  We  have 
two  classes  of  counsellors  within  us,  the  one  good,  being  the 


206  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1838. 

voice  of  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  in  the  conscience,  the  other 
evil,  being  the  calls  to  self-indulgence,  self-acting,  self-judg- 
ing, etc.  The  first  is  a  still  small  voice,  which  requires 
listening  and  attention  if  we  would  hear  it  at  all  or  get 
acquainted  with  the  speaker.  The  others  require  no 
attention,  and  are  attended  to  in  the  absence  of  an  opposite 
attention.  These  two  are  the  spirit  and  the  flesh.  Chris- 
tianity consists  in  living  to  the  spirit,  and  subduing  or 
crucifying  the  flesh,  that  is,  it  consists  in  listening  to 
and  following  and  cleaving  to  the  spirit  testifying  in  the 
conscience  ;  and  ungodliness  consists  in  going  forward  with- 
out attending  to  this  voice  of  God.  Our  Christianity  is 
not  out  of  us,  but  in  us.  It  is  not  in  a  book  or  in  a  dis- 
course, it  is  in  us  ;  and  the  book  and  the  discourse  are  so  far 
profitable  to  us,  as  they  awaken  up,  and  train,  and  nourish 
this  precious  seed  which  the  Son  of  Man  has  sown  in  all 
hearts.  In  every  action  of  my  outward  or  inward  man,  God 
sets  before  me  the  choice  of  right  and  wrong,  of  His  will 
and  my  own  selfish  will,  and  my  action  contains  my  answer 
to  God's  counsel.  So  it  is  said  in  Pro  v.  xv.  28:  "The 
heart  of  the  righteous  studieth  to  answer," — that  is,  con- 
sidered the  counsel  of  God  before  acting, — "  but  the  mouth 
of  the  wicked  poureth  out  evil  things,"  that  is,  instead  of 
listening  to  God,  he  acts  from  his  own  impulse  or  wisdom. 
Then  again,  Prov.  xviii.  1 3,  "  He  that  answereth  a  matter 
before  he  heareth,  it  is  a  folly  and  shame  unto  him."  Our 
wisdom  is  to  listen  to  God  at  each  step,  so  that  we  may 
have  His  wisdom  to  direct  us.  See  Psalm  xxxii.  8  :  "  I 
will  instruct  thee,  and  teach  thee  in  the  way  which  thou 
shalt  go,  and  I  will  guide  thee  with  mine  eye.  Be  not  like 
the  horse  or  mule,  which  have  no  understanding."  He  that 
answereth  before  hearing  is  he  who  refuses  to  listen  to  this 
instructor,  and  is  like  the  horse  and  mule,  which  have  no 
such  voice  within  them.     It  is  an  inward  voice,  and  a  per- 


jet.  49.  MADAME  DE  BROGUE.  207 

sonal  voice,  that  is,  it  comes  from  God  personally, — to  me 
personally,  as  one  person  might  guide  another  person  by 
the  eye, — which  is  personal  in  its  fullest  intensity.  Prov. 
xx.  5  :  "  Counsel  in  the  heart  of  a  man  is  like  deep  water,  but 
a  man  of  understanding  will  draw  it  out."  This  counsel 
is  evidently  the  Wisdom  that  speaks  throughout  the  whole 
Book  of  Proverbs,  and  it  is  also  the  Word  that  was  with 
God,  and  was  God,  in  St.  John  i.  1-9,  which  is  also  "the 
true  Light  which  lighteth  every  man."  And  who  is  the 
man  of  understanding  that  can  draw  out  this  deep  water  % 
"  To  depart  from  evil  is  understanding."  The  man  who 
will  cease  fr*om  his  own  wisdom  is  he  Avho  draws  up  God's 
counsels  from  the  great  deep.  We  are  placed  above  this 
great  deep,  with  an  apparatus,  a  mental  apparatus,  for  draw- 
ing it  up.  And  what  is  this  apparatus  1  It  is  the  same 
thing  in  the  spiritual  world  as  in  the  physical  :  we  must 
create  a  vacuum  in  our  pump,  we  must  cease  from  our  own 
wisdom,  then  the  great  deep  rises  up  into  us.  The  verse 
immediately  following  agrees  with  this  solution  (Prov.  xx. 
6)  :  "  Most  men  will  proclaim  every  one  his  own  goodness, 
but  a  faithful  man  who  can  find  1"  Most  men  are  so  pos- 
sessed by  themselves  that  they  have  no  vacuum  into  which 
God's  deep  water  may  rise;  the  faithful  man  is  he  who, 
knowing  that  he  is  a  dependent  creature  belonging  to  his 
Creator,  refuses  to  be  his  own  guide,  or  his  own  end,  and 
thus  he  creates  the  necessary  vacuum.  These  things  are 
very  interesting  to  me.  I  know  not  whether  you  will  find 
them  so,  but  I  write  them  in  the  hope  that  you  may. 

I  have  seen  little  of  any  of  your  friends  and  mine,  but 
I  have  seen  them,  and  what  I  have  seen  I  have  been 
profited  by  and  pleased  with.  I  have  called  on  Madame 
de  St.  Aulaire  often,  but  have  only  seen  her  once;  she 
lives  near  me,  so  that  I  can  easily  go.  I  have  seen  dear 
old  Madame  Guizot,  whom  I  love  exceedingly.       I  have 


208  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1838 

also  met  Macllle.  Chabaud  at  Madame  Pelet's,  and  liked 
her  well,  also  M.  Grandpierre. 

The  more  I  think  of  our  conversations  about  the  different 
places,  which  belong  to  the  subjective  and  the  objective 
in  religion,  the  more  I  am  persuaded  that  it  is  impossible 
that  we  can  mean  different  things.  I  think  only  that 
you  insist  too  much  on  conventional  language,  which  I 
feel  called  on  to  avoid,  because  I  find  that  it  is  so  often 
used  to  stand  in  the  place  of  the  thing  itself. 

.1  am  reading  your  husband's  book  with  great 
interest ;  I  shall  write  you  about  it  when  I  have  finished  it. 
It  is  always  a  great  delight  to  me  to  hear  from  you  even 
a  few  words,  though  the  more  the  better.  I  am  myself 
a  bad  letter-writer,  and  I  have  also  a  good  many  letters 
to  write,  besides  having  on  my  hands  and  my  conscience 
the  correcting  of  my  book,  in  which  any  word  of  help  from 
you  would  be  most  welcome. — Yours  ever.  With  best  re- 
gards to  Madame  de  Stael.  T.  ERSKINE. 

88.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  PATERSON. 

7 1  Rue  Grenelle,  St.  Germain,  Paris, 
Uh  June  [1838]. 

My  dearest  Davie, — What  means  your  silence  1  Are 
you  too  much  absorbed  by  memory,  aided  by  the  return  of 
the  season,  and  the  sight  of  places  associated  with  those 
dear  spirits  1  The  acacia-trees  here  are  in  superb  beauty, 
if  such  sweet  simplicity  can  ever  be  rightly  called  superb  ; 
and  they  recall  to  me  our  acacia-tree,  and  Joseph  the  cat, 
and  those  who  used  to  delight  to  carry  Joseph  about,  and 
to  watch  his  gambols  about  the  tree.  "  Blessed  are  they 
that  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness "  all  the  day 
long.  It  is  the  only  business  that  stands  out  the  burden 
and  heat  of  the  day,  and  finds  bread  that  endureth  amongst 
all  the  husks  of  life.     We  are  not  our  own,  but  God's; 


jet.  49.  MRS.  PATERS  ON.  209 

and  we  are  under  His  guidance.  If  I  were  alone  just  now 
I  should  leave  Paris  and  go  to  Switzerland,  or  perhaps  to 
Broglie  rather,  for  a  little  while  first.  Paris  evidently  dis- 
agrees with  me.  .  '.  .  We  live  in  a  most  beautiful  lodging, 
as  quiet  as  if  this  great  Babylon  were  a  hundred  miles  off 
— serenaded  not  with  fiacre-Avheels  and  drivers,  but  with 
sweetest  blackbirds,  which  have  an  undisturbed  possession 
of  garden  and  grove  ground  to  a  considerable  extent  be- 
hind us.  We  have  a  balcony  which  hangs  over  and  looks 
over  this  pleasure-ground,  on  which  we  can  walk  at  our 
ease.  The  weather  has  been  remarkably  backward,  cold 
and  wet.  Mr.  Campbell  sometimes  suffers  from  the  heat, 
I  always  from  the  cold,  sometimes  wearing  my  heavy 
great-coat  in  the  house  to  keep  me  warm. 

6th  June. — The  last  letter  which  I  received  from  you 
reached  me  on  the  13th  May,  and  Christian's  last  was  on 
the  1 6th.  I  have  written  to  you  both  since ;  and  some- 
times think  that  something  has  happened  which  prevents 
your  writing ;  or  perhaps  that  you  have  mistaken  my 
address. 

At  Lady  Olivia's,  Marhceuf,  Lord  Mandeville,  her  son- 
in-law,  has  a  meeting  for  conversing  on  the  Scriptures 
every  Friday.  I  was  there  last  Friday  alone  ;  Mr.  Camp- 
bell was  at  Hahnemann's.  The  chapter  was  the  first  of 
First  Peter.  Mr.  L.  presides.  He  began  with  election,  and 
carried  on  some  conversation  on  the  subject  with  Lord  M. 
and  the  others.  At  last  I  felt  that  I  ought  to  speak  on  it ; 
so  I  did.  They  received  it  very  gently,  but  as  a  very 
strange  doctrine.  Mr.  Campbell's  heart  longs  to  say  some- 
thing for  God;  I  believe  that  he  will  speak  at  these 
meetings.  I  never  heard  anything  more  fearfully  Calvin- 
istic  than  Mr.  L.  He  denied  that  man  was  here  in  a  state 
of  probation  :  this  world  is  merely  a  school  for  the  elect, 
and  preaching  is  only  intended   to  call    them  and   train 

o 


210  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1838. 

them.  How  different  from  Wisdom  in  the  Proverbs,  whose 
voice  is  to  the  sons  of  man — the  sons  of  Adam  in  the 
original.  I  should  feel  thankful  to  be  used  to  deliver  any 
soul  from  the  yoke  of  such  a  system.  There  is  a  man  here 
whom  I  like  very  much — the  Lutheran  minister.  He  is 
a  great  friend  of  Madame  de  B. ;  he  is  German,  and  is 
large  and  wide  and  full  of  heart. — Ever  yours,  my  dear 
Davie,  with  love  to  James,  T.  E. 

89.    TO  MADAME  DE  BROGLIE. 

71  Rue  de  Crenelle,  St.  Germain, 
Paris,  14th  June  1838. 

Dear  Friend, — Dr.  Chalmers  is  desirous  to  see  you — 
and  also  to  see  a  little  more  of  the  country.  He  is  very 
much  obliged  to  you  for  your  invitation,  and  will  probably 
be  with  you  either  the  end  of  next  week  or  the  beginning 
of  the  week  following.     I  shall  accompany  him. 

I  was  at  Taitbout  on  Sunday,  and  heard  the  regular 
minister  preach  on  that  word  of  God  to  Abraham  :  "  Ne 
crains  point,  Je  suis  ton  bouclier  et  ta  grande  recompense." 
I  wish  you  had  been  there  along  with  me,  as  it  would  have 
given  us  an  opportunity  of  mutual  explanation  as  to  the 
distinction  and  connection  between  confidence  in  God  and 
consciousness  of  what  is  in  one's-self.  The  preacher  said, 
"  We  ought  to  consider  the  character  of  the  man  to  whom 
this  address  was  made,  for  it  does  not  belong  to  any  but 
to  those  who  possess  this  character.  Abraham  was  the 
type  and  model  of  the  faithful,  a  devoted  servant  and 
friend  of  God,  etc.  etc.  Unless,  then,  we  can  recognise 
these  qualities  in  ourselves,  we  cannot  appropriate  the 
address  to  ourselves."  Now,  this  appears  to  me  to  be 
erroneously  stated,  for  the  character  of  man  depends  on 
that  which  is  his  confidence.  The  man  of  covetousness 
expects  happiness  from  money  :  he  is  covetous,  just  because 


jet.  49.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSK/NE.  211 

money  is  his  confidence  ;  so  of  the  man  of  pleasure  and 
ambition,  etc.  Their  confidence  in  pleasure  and  in  power, 
as  causes  or  sources  of  happiness,  is  the  root  of  their  faults. 
If  you  change  their  confidence  you  change  their  character. 
If  you  can  persuade  a  covetous  man  that  money  is  not  son 
bouclier  ni  sa  grande  recompense,  but  that  God  is,  you  change 
him  from  a  covetous  man  into  a  pious  man.  So  it  seems 
to  me  that  the  word  spoken  to  Abraham  may  well  be 
spoken  to  every  man,  in  this  sense,  "  Created  things  are 
not  ton  bouclier  and  ton  bonheur — metis  moi  Je  les  sttis."  The 
thing  in  which  I  put  my  confidence  for  happiness  has 
necessarily  a  directing  influence  over  my  whole  being ;  it 
communicates  its  own  nature  to  me  in  some  measure.  Con- 
.  fidence  in  a  guide  insures  my  following  that  guide,  it  binds 
me  to  him.  Confidence  in  God  makes  me  one  with  God, 
in  a  measure,  and  in  so  far  it  is  righteousness.  Con- 
fidence in  God  does  not  give  me  confidence  in  Him.  My 
confidence  rests  upon  what  I  know  of  God's  character,  but 
my  confidence,  inasmuch  as  it  binds  me  to  a  righteous  God, 
is  itself  a  righteous  thing.  The  only  righteousness  of  man 
is  to  receive  a  righteous  Leader,  a  righteous  confidence,  a 
true  Guide.  Man  is  merely  a  receiver,  it  is  the  conscious- 
ness of  this  which  prevents  the  consciousness  of  his  having 
made  a  right  choice  from  producing  self-conceit. 

When  God  says  to  man,  "  Well  clone,  good  and  faithful 
servant,"  He  does  not  mean  to  flatter  him,  nor  to  injure 
his  spirit,  by  self-exaltation.  If  the  consciousness  of 
righteousness  is  inconsistent  with  humility,  man  must 
remain  in  a  false  position  through  eternity. — Yours  ever, 

T.  Erskine. 

90.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

71  Rue  de  Greneixe,  IGth  June  1S38. 
Dearest  Cousin  R, —  .  .  .  Dr.  Chalmers  has  come  to 


212  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1838. 

Paris,  and  is  over  head  and  ears  with  delight ;  he  has  an 
honest,  natural,  unsuppressed  pleasure  in  seeing  everything 
and  every  person.  My  entire  want  of  curiosity  makes  me 
an  unfit  companion  for  him;  but  I  see  a  good  deal  of  him, 
and  cannot  but  love  his  honest  bigness  (a  cognate  probably 
of  highness).  ...  I  am  sorry  to  see  young  "women  of  our 
land  brought  up  in  this  country.  There  is  an  externalness 
in  all  things  here,  beyond  what  there  is  with  us,  which  is 
an  unwholesome  element,  most  difficult  to  be  guarded 
against.  .  .  .  Mr.  Campbell  is  not  making  much  progress, 
but  he  is  certainly  better  and  stronger  on  the  whole.  When 
I  was  formerly  on  the  Continent  I  was  always  alone.  Soli- 
tude was  my  habitual  condition,  out  of  which  I  emerged 
into  society ;  but  Mr.  C.'s  company  changes  that  state.  I 
believe  that  it  is  not  wholesome  for  the  mind  to  be  habitu- 
ally alone ;  it  produces  selfishness,  or  at  least  nourishes  it. 
Mr.  Campbell  is  a  profitable  companion ;  he  is  occupied 
with  the  one  thing  needful,  and  his  mind  is  a  very  think- 
ing and  original  one.  .   .  . 

91.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKIXE. 

71  Rue  de  Grenelle,  St.  Germaix, 
10th  Jubj  1838. 

Dear  Cousin, —  .  .  .  Dr.  Chalmers  is  to  leave  Paris 
this  day,  after  having  had  a  month  of  great  enjoyment,  see- 
ing everything  with  a  freshness  of  interest  and  curiosity 
that  astonishes  me ;  he  leaves  Paris  quite  delighted  with  it. 
I  had  a  week  of  him,  making  a  tour,  going  first  to  Broglie, 
and  from  that  to  Alenc^n,  Tours,  Orleans,  Fontainebleau, 
and  home,  visiting  beautiful  cathedrals,  and  passing  through 
rich  and  varied  scenery.  I  was  very  happy  to  have  an 
opportunity  of  recalling  former  relations,  which  had  rather 
fallen  into  desuetude.  I  found  him  most  amiable,  most 
true  and  infantine,  and  quite  disposed,  T  think,  to  give  me 


-et.  49.  MADAME  DE  BROGLIE.  213 

back  the  place  which  I  used  to  hold  with  him.  .  .  .  The 
activity  of  his  intelligence  is  very  great,  and  gives  him  a 
continual  interest;  hut  it  works,  not  about  persons,  but 
about  things,  which  is  to  me  a  diminution  of  the  interest. 
There  was  a  considerable  party  at  Broglie,  of  very  pleasant 
intelligent  people.  They  all  liked  the  Doctor  very  much, 
his  naivete  and  benevolence  were  so  striking.  Dear  Madame 
was  much  pleased  with  him,  and  the  Duke  and  he  had  many 
a  long  discussion  on  political  economy,  the  law  of  primogeni- 
ture, the  advantage  of  having  large  properties  in  a  country, 
etc.  ...  I  went  to  Pere  la  Chaise  to  see  dear 's  monu- 
ment again.  What  a  comfort  it  is  to  think  that  God  is 
the  finder  of  all  lost  things!  .  .  .  Beloved  cousin,  fare- 
well.    Love  to  all. — Yours  most  affectionately, 

T.  Erskine. 

92.    TO  MADAME  DE  BROGLIE. 

Hotel  Castellane,  Rue  Grenelle,  St.  Germain, 
2\st  Jubj. 
Dear  Friend, —  ...  I  have  read  the  Duke's  book 
through  with  much  interest,  and  it  has  created  a  strong 
desire  to  see  the  remaining  volume.  Is  it  lithographed 
yet]  The  distinction  which  he  draws  between  the 
religious  man  and  the  theologian  is  exceedingly  good, 
and  beautifully  illustrated.  I  hope  you  will  let  me  have 
the  sequel  as  soon  as  you  can ;  it  relates  to  what  has 
occupied  my  own  mind  for  many  years — the  connection 
between  man  and  Christianity,  and  the  relation  of  that 
which  is  positive  in  religion  to  that  which  is  principle. 
When  I  look  at  the  four  Evangelists  I  see  a  great  difference 
between  John  and  the  others,  and  in  like  manner  I  see  a 
great  difference  between  the  various  Epistles.  In  some  I 
see  the  positive  almost  passed  over  altogether,  in  some 
strongly  pressed,  and  I  sometimes  feel  disposed  to  think 


214  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKTXE.  1838. 

that  the  one  class  is  more  intended  for  one  age,  and  the 
other  for  another.  In  my  own  mind,  I  don't  feel  that  I  at 
all  lose  the  positive  by  identifying  it  with  principle,  and 
that  which  is  matter  of  general  consciousness.  I  don't  lose 
the  personal  character  and  relation  of  Christ  to  me  by 
identifying  Him  with  my  conscience  ;  on  the  contrary,  I 
find  my  apprehension  of  that  personal  character  and  relation 
increased  by  it.  If  the  Bible  is  given  to  us  "for  our 
instruction  in  righteousness,"  it  is  certainly  intended  to 
address  our  moral  conscience,  as  otherwise  it  could  not  be 
for  our  instruction  in  righteousness.  I  cannot  too  strongly 
express  to  you  the  conviction  which  I  have,  that  man  can  do 
no  good  thing  of  himself,  and  yet  I  cannot  too  strongly  ex- 
press my  conviction  that  the  Spirit  of  God  is  always  pre- 
sent to  him,  and  that  he  may  take  hold  of  that  strength  if 
he  will.  I  believe  that  the  first  step  is  made  by  God  to- 
wards all  men,  but  that  they  may  and  do  accept  or  refuse 
according  to  something  in  themselves, — a  personal  choice 
which  belongs  to  the  very  essence  of  their  natures.  The 
frequent  recurrence  throughout  the  book  to  the  inward  test 
of  truth,  moral  and  intellectual,  is  most  pleasing  to  me, — 
the  intuitive  perception  of  truth,  the  glance  that  one 
sometimes  gets  into  the  truth  of  a  fact  or  a  principle 
which  is  followed  by  sudden  darkness,  and  yet  remains  as 
a  counterpoise  against  all  the  darkness,  although  it  is 
only  a  memory.  I  have  perfect  sympathy  with  all  such 
things.  I  hope  I  may  yet  have  some  real  conversation 
with  him  upon  this  subject,  which  is  to  me  the  most  in- 
teresting of  all  subjects,  except  the  actual  thing  itself,  the 
life  of  God  in  man's  soul. 

We  paid  a  very  pleasant  visit  to  Broglie ;  both  the  Doctor1 
and  I  enjoyed  it  very  much.  I  saw  Madame  de  Stael  as 
she  passed  through.     Mr.  Duparquet  has  called  for  me,  and 

1  Dr.  Chalmers. 


jet.  49.  MADAME  DE  BROGLIE.  215 

has  asked  me  to  see  him  at  Etiolles,  which  I  hope  to  do. 
Dear  fellow-pilgrim,  the  Good  Shepherd  be  with  you, 
strengthening  and  comforting  you.  Mr.  Campbell  begs  to 
be  remembered  to  you. — Yours  in  much  love, 

T.  Erskine. 

93.    TO  MADAME  DE  BROGLIE. 

Hotel  Castellane,  Rue  i>e  Grenelle,  St.  Germain, 
2d  August  IS 38. 

Dear  Friend,— I  do  not  expect  in  this  world  to  be  de- 
livered from  a  heavy  weight  of  sorrow.  We  are  called  into 
a  union  and  participation  with  Him  who  was  a  man  of 
sorrows,  and  who,  though  a  Son,  yet  learned  obedience  by 
the  things  which  He  suffered.  Beloved  friend,  faint  not, 
neither  be  weary ;  take  up  your  cross  and  follow  Him  unto 
the  same  place  whither  He  hath  gone  before.  I  believe 
that  it  was  the  experience  of  what  you  express  in  your 
letter, — I  mean  the  experience  of  an  insupportable  burden 
of  grief,  which  I  could  by  no  means  cast  off, — which  first 
led  me  to  take  the  view  of  the  atonement  which  I  now 
take,  and  to  consider  Jesus  not  as  a  substitute,  but  as  the 
Head  and  Fountain  of  Salvation,  supplying  us  with  His  own 
spirit,  so  that  we  may  use  the  discipline  of  life,  the  sorrow, 
the  agony  of  life,  as  He  did,  to  learn  obedience,  to  learn  to 
find  in  the  will  of  God,  which  appoints  our  path,  a  union 
with  the  mind  of  God.  Jesus  found  that  will  to  be  meat 
indeed,  as  He  walked  His  weary,  sorrowing  pilgrimage  ;  He 
felt  that  it  Avas  all  tender  love,  and  He  would  have  us  feel 
it  also,  for  we  cannot  otherwise  be  made  meet  for  the  rest 
and  glory  of  God.  And  as  He  puts  the  cup  of  sorrow  into 
our  hand,  He  says,  Can  ye  drink  of  the  cup  that  I  drink  of? 
And  shall  we  refuse  or  hold  back  from  this  fellowship  with 
Jesus,  in  the  sorrow  which  kills  sin  when  it  is  received  in 
the  spirit  of  Jesus,  in  the  filial  spirit  1     "  These  light  afflic- 


216  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1838. 

tioiis,  which  are  but  for  a  moment,  work  for  us  a  far  more 
exceeding,  even  an  eternal  weight  of  glory,  whilst  Ave  look 
not  at  the  things  which  are  seen,  but  at  the  things  Avhich  are 
not  seen."  The  sorrow  is  not  merely  a  difficulty  which  we 
are  to  endeavour  to  pass  through  as  easily  and  as  quickly  as 
we  can,  it  is  the  thing  which  works  out  the  eternal  weight 
of  glory, — not  at  all  in  the  way  of  a  price  paid  for  it,  but  as 
the  wise  education  and  medicine  of  God.  We  are  like  the 
Israelites  travelling  through  that  dreary  desert,  until  our 
carcases,  our  fleshly  thoughts  and  desires,  fall  in  the  wilder- 
ness ;  but  in  the  meantime  we  have  the  manna  to  feed  on, 
the  will  of  God  in  all  things,  and  we  have  the  pillar  of 
cloud  and  of  fire,  the  presence  of  God  in  our  consciences 
directing  us  in  the  way.  And  shall  we  say  that  we  are  with- 
out comfort  ]  And  have  we  not  a  hope  full  of  immortality  1 
Dear  sister,  you  have  often  been  a  channel  of  comfort  to 
me.  I  pray  God  for  you,  that  you  may  meet  a  living  will 
of  God  in  every  sorrow  that  bows  down  your  heart,  and 
that  you  may  find  your  Father's  love  in  your  Father's  will. 
Read  the  3d  chapter  of  the  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah  in 
the  English  Bible.  I  have  often  found  it  a  precious  word 
of  comfort.  Accept  your  punishment,  not  the  punishment 
of  a  Judge,  but  the  chastisement  of  a  most  tender  Father, 
who  afflicteth  not  willingly,  but  for  our  profit.  Will  you 
look  at  my  book,  pp.  103-105,  if  you  are  not  afraid  1  I  was 
out  at  Etiolles  seeing  Madame  Duparquet.  They  had  just 
heard  of  the  death  of  Mr.  Cuvier,  which  seemed  a  very  sore 
affliction  to  Madame  Duparquet,  whose  heart  is  very  tender. 
The  discipline  is  going  on  in  every  house,  and  in  every 
heart.  Let  us  take  part  in  God's  work  with  us.  Let  us 
enter  into  His  plan.  Dear  friend,  I  do  not  say  that  the 
inward  revelation  in  conscience  makes  us  independent  of 
the  outward  revelation,  but  I  say  that  we  never  rightly 
receive  or  believe  the  outward  revelation  until  we  learn  it 


^et.  49.  MADAME  DE  BROGUE.  217 

from  the  inward,  and  that  the  use  of  the  outward  is  to 
foster  and  educate  the  inward.  I  believe  that  they  are 
duplicates  by  the  same  hand,  with  this  difference,  that  the  in- 
ward, being  a  living  thing,  and  being  mixed  and  surrounded 
with  things  of  a  nature  opposed  to  it,  is  liable  to  be 
mistaken,  and  even  to  remain  altogether  undeveloped,  or 
choked  in  the  heart,  whereas  the  other  remains  always  the 
same  unmixed  pure  announcement  of  truth. 

94.    TO  MADAME  DE  BROGLIE. 

Hue  Grenelle,  Sr.  Germain,  13th  August. 

Dear  Friend, — I  have  heard  from  Dr.  Chalmers.  He 
tells  me  that  he  has  sent  a  copy  of  his  works,  now  reprinting, 
for  you,  and  another  for  Mademoiselle  Pomaret.  He  had  not 
written  to  you,  because  he  did  not  like  to  do  it,  until  he 
had  been  invited  to  do  so  by  yourself.  If  you  have  received 
his  books,  I  doubt  not  that  you  have  already  written  to 
him,  and  if  you  have  not  received  them — that  is,  if  they 
have  not  yet  arrived, — you  may  perhaps  write  to  tell  him 
so.  I  should  like  to  hear  how  Mademoiselle  Pomaret  is ;  I 
heard  from  M.  Duparquet  that  she  had  been  unwell. 

When  I  received  your  last  letter,  I  was  so  much  occupied 
that  I  entirely  overlooked  the  criticisms  which  you  make 
in  it  on  the  views  which  you  suppose  my  book  contains. 
I  often  feel  discouraged  from  expressing  my  thoughts,  by 
finding  that  I  do  it  in  so  imperfect  a  manner  as  to  give 
an  entirely  false  impression  of  them.  I  see  that  I  have 
given  you  an  impression  perfectly  foreign  to  my  meaning. 
My  object  is  not  in  the  smallest  degree  to  say  what  the 
conscience  might  do  for  man  without  the  Bible,  but  to 
say  that  all  that  a  man  learns  from  the  Bible,  without  its 
awakening  within  him  a  living  consciousness  of  its  truth, 
might  as  well  not  be  learned, — that  is,  I  believe  that  there 
is  a  real  correspondence  between  the  truths  of  the  Bible 


218  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1838. 

and  the  spiritual  part  of  man's  nature,  in  the  same  way  as 
there  is  a  correspondence  between  the  outward  relations 
of  life  (as  parent  and  child,  husband  and  wife,  brothers, 
sisters,  friends,  neighbours,  etc.)  and  the  feelings  of 
man's  heart;  and  that  as  a  man  could  not  comprehend 
these  relations  of  life  if  he  had  not  a  consciousness  in  his 
heart  corresponding  to  them,  so  I  believe  that  a  man  could 
not  really  believe  the  truths  concerning  his  higher  relations 
unless  he  had  a  consciousness  in  his  heart  corresponding  to 
them,  and  that  in  fact  he  cannot  truly  be  said  to  believe 
them  unless  that  consciousness  be  awakened.  I  wish  to 
guard  people  against  supposing  that  they  believe  a  doctrine 
of  the  Bible,  or  have  faith,  merely  because  they  believe 
that  the  Bible  is  true.  I  believe  also  that  there  are 
different  depths  of  meaning  in  the  same  truth,  and  that 
according  to  the  degree  of  spiritual  discernment  of  the 
deeper  meaning  so  is  the  profit  from  the  doctrine.    .  .  . 

I  have  never  supposed  the  case  of  a  man  possessing  a 
Bible  and  yet  putting  it  from  him,  on  the  ground  that 
conscience  was  sufficient.  I  think  that  a  man  who  did  so 
would  be  found  to  be  sinning  against  his  conscience.  But 
I  never  suppose  such  a  case ;  it  does  not  form  any  part  of 
my  argument.  I  do  not  oppose  the  conscience  to  the  Bible, 
but  I  say  that  the  Bible  is  meant  and  fitted  for  the  con- 
science, as  a  telescope  is  meant  for  the  eye.  The  conscience 
is  the  eye,  the  Bible  is  the  telescope ;  and  as  the  telescope 
does  not  change  the  faculty  of  sight,  but  brings  more  objects 
within  its  range,  so  does  the  Bible  to  the  conscience. 

I  believe  that  God  has  left  no  man  without  the  means 
of  salvation,  and  that  a  man  without  a  Bible  has  still  a  God, 
and  a  God  whom  he  can  get  acquainted  with  through  his 
conscience,  and  I  believe  that  salvation  means  a  growing  in 
acquaintanceship  with  God  and  in  conformity  to  His  will. 

Kemember    me    with    much    regard    to    Mademoiselle 


^T.  49.  MISS  RACHEL  ERSA'INE.  219 


Pomaret  and  your  husband,  and  Monsieur  Doudan,  and  to 
your  daughter  and  her  husband,  if  they  are  with  you. — 
Yours  ever,  T.  Erskine. 

I  intend  to  go  to  Geneva  next  week,  early  in  the  week 
— on  Wednesday  perhaps.     Write  a  word. 

95.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

Paris,  \5th  August  1838. 
My  dear  Cousin  Rachel, —  ...  I  had  a  letter  from 
Dr.  Chalmers  the  other  day,  proving  to  me  that  he  had 
completely  misunderstood  my  book.  I  need  not  think  of 
writing  another  book  to  explain  the  book  which  I  have 
already  written.  What  are  you  doing'?  enjoying  lovely 
Cardross,  fair  and  noble  Cardross,  with  its  grave  square 
tower,  and  its  trees,  under  which  our  fathers'  fathers  have 
played,  and  its  beautiful  extent  of  grass,  and  its  seclusion, 
and  its  simple  peasantry — simple,  that  was,  but  that  is  no 
longer,  for  simplicity  has  left  our  land  1  It  is  possible  that 
on  the  whole  there  may  be  a  higher  standard  of  moral 
feeling  in  Great  Britain  than  in  France  at  this  present 
moment ;  but  it  seems  to  me  that  we  are  going  down-hill 
and  that  France  is  rather  ascending.  The  thought  of  my 
country  is  a  very  melancholy  thought  to  me.  The  whole 
social  system  is  sick ;  there  is  no  brotherhood.  I  some- 
times feel  as  if  I  could  enter  into  the  feelings  of  the  French 
nation,  when,  conscious  of  the  entire  want  of  brotherhood 
amongst  them,  they  raised  their  frantic  cry  of  Liberty, 
Equality,  Fraternity,  or  Death  !  They  felt  they  needed  these 
things,  but  they  did  not  know  how  to  set  about  getting 
them.  They  felt  the  want  of  brothers,  and  the  only  way 
that  occurred  to  them  of  manufacturing  brothers  was  to 
set  the  guillotine  agoing,  and  cannons  and  muskets  an<] 
bayonets  agoing,  and  saying  to  all  men,  Be  our  brothers, 
or  die  !   .  .   . 


220  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  183S. 


96.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  STIRLING. 

Been,  \UK  Sept.  1838. 
Dearest  Christian, — I  am  often  recalled  to  the  re- 
membrance of  you  and  Charles  at  present,  by  tbe  sight  of 
places  which  we  all  looked  at  together;  for  I  am  now  making 
with  Mr.  Scott  the  same  tour  that  I  made  with  you  in  the 
24.  These  remembrances  now  must  carry  us  out  of  the 
visible  and  the  finite,  if  we  would,  even  in  imagination, 
follow  our  companions,  as  almost  all  our  remembrances  must 
do  ;  for  what  can  we  remember  that  is  not  connected  with 
some  one  who  has  ceased  to  be  a  part  of  our  visible  cir- 
cumstances 1  And  the  chief  character  of  interest  which 
the  lofty  peaks  (which  I  am  now  searching  for  amongst  the 
clouds)  possess,  is  just  that  same  quality  of  carrying  us  up 
out  of  the  visible  and  the  finite.  The  meeting  of  heaven 
and  earth,  of  the  Creator  and  the  creature,  is  the  true 
thing  symbolised  by  the  scenes  before  me,  and  from  which 
they  derive  their  intense  interest ;  as  it  is  also  the  thing 
which  is  at  the  root  of  the  interest  which  we  feel  in  follow- 
ing a  departed  friend  into  his  unseen  habitation.  ...  I 
met  at  Lausanne  with  an  old  friend  of  mine,  who  was 
pastor  of  the  Reformed  Church  at  Frankfort  when  I  passed 
through  that  city  with  Begbie,  before  Archibald  joined  me 
at  Hamburg ;  he  is  apparently  dying  now ;  he  is  a  man  of 
very  remarkable  talents  and  great  amiableness.  We  had 
been  great  friends  at  Frankfort,  and  although  we  had  had 
no  correspondence  of  any  kind  since  that  time,  he  met  me 
with  much  affection  and  much  emotion ;  he  told  me  that 
he  would  wish  to  live,  if  it  were  the  will  of  God ;  he  had 
been,  he  thought,  a  gainer  by  his  illness,  in  respect  of  his 
qualification  to  teach  others  the  way  of  salvation ;  he  also 
said  he  had  been  so  happy  at  Lausanne;  he  loved  and 
admired  his  country  exceedingly,  and  he  felt  that  the  loss 


mt.  49.  MISS  JANE  STIRLING.  221 


of  life  would  be  a  great  privation.     Poor  fellow,  he  does 
not  look  as  if  he  could  survive  long ;  he  remembered  every 
word  that  had  passed  between  us  at  Frankfort,  and  went 
over  it  all  with  an  affecting  interest.1     I  also  made  a  new 
acquaintance  at  Lausanne — with  M.  Vinet,  the  most  re- 
markable man  in  the  French  Protestant  Church  ;  he  seemed 
to  me  large  and   free,  and    yet    deeply   serious.     I  was 
delighted  with  him  ;  he  has  not  the  Calvinism  of  Gaussen 
or  Merle — at  least  he  has  some  other  thing  which  balances 
it,  which  they  want.     I  also  saw  Scholl,  whom  you,  I  think, 
saw — an  amiable,  excellent  man.     The  sight  of  Vinet,  and 
the  reading  of  some  of  his  books,  gave  me  a  hope  for  the 
Swiss  and  French  Protestants  which  I  scarcely  had  before. 
I  am  convinced  that  nothing  but  infidelity  can  be  the  con- 
sequence   of  holding    that    Calvinistic   logic  so  prevalent 
through  Scotland,  and  which  is  preached  also,  though  in  a 
more  living  way,  through  the  French  and  Swiss  Reformed 
Church.     Men  require  something  now  which  will  commend 
itself  to  the  conscience  and  the  reason,  and  if  that  is  not 
given  them,  they  have  only  superstition  and  infidelity  to 
choose  between,  and  I  think  that  they  are  showing  that 
infidelity  is  their  choice. 

I  wish  you  could  get  Vinet ;  he  is  more  of  Scott's  calibre 
than  any  person  that  I  know.  I  shall  in  a  future  letter 
tell  you  how  you  may  get  it.  I  met  Tom  Dundas  and  his 
wife  at  Geneva ;  I  was  happy  to  be  met  with  so  much  of 
the  feeling  of  relationship  by  him.  .  .  .  We  intend  to  go 
to  Interlachen  to-morrow.  T.  E. 

97.    TO  MISS  JANE  STIRLING. 

1th  Oct.  1S3S,  Geneva. 
.  .  .  You  will  by  tins  time  have  received  the  news  of 
the  death  of  Madame  de  Broglie.     To  many  it  is  a  deso- 

1  Monsieur  Manuel. 


222  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1S3S. 

lating  blow ;  to  her  poor  husband  and  children,  and  to 
Madame  de  Stael,  it  is  a  desolation,  a  withering  of  life. 
You  knew  her,  and  you  loved  her,  and  she  loved  you; 
and  you  will  feel  that  there  is  not  another  creature  in 
creation  that  could  fill  her  place  to  you.  I  feel  that;  but 
I  know  that  she  has  entered  into  peace,  and  that  this  blow, 
so  severe  to  others,  so  drying  up  of  the  life  of  many  hearts, 
has  for  herself  broken  in  pieces  the  gates  of  brass,  and  cut 
in  sunder  the  bars  of  iron.  She  died  by  a  brain  fever,  as 
her  brother  did,  brought  on,  I  doubt  not,  by  the  continued 
wearing  down  of  the  material  by  the  immaterial.  She 
took  a  slight  cold,  as  she  thought,  about  the  7th  September; 
on  the  11th  it  appeared  serious ;  on  the  22d,  at  five  in  the 
morning,  her  spirit  flew  away  and  was  at  rest.  The  fever 
affected  her  head  very  soon,  but  it  had  no  power  over  her 
heart,  over  her  free  spirit ;  she  prayed  without  ceasing,  she 
loved  without  ceasing — beloved  spirit.  I  saw  her  last  on 
the  21st  August.  I  left  her  that  day  with  a  solemn  feeling, 
an  indistinct  feeling  of  the  uncertainty  of  time-things ;  but 
little  indeed  did  I  realise  that  she  was  so  near  her  deliver- 
ance. She  urged  me  much  to  go  back  to  Broglie  when  she 
did,  which  was  two  days  afterwards ;  she  said  she  wished 
much  to  commune  on  the  things  of  eternity,  and  she  said 
'•  II  faut  du  temps,  vous  savez,  pour  parler  des  choses  de 
l'eterniteV'  When  I  paid  my  visit  at  Broglie  with  Dr. 
Chalmers,  he  occupied  her  entirely,  so  she  required  a  visit 
for  myself;  she  pressed  it  so  much  that,  if  it  had  not  been 
that  I  did  not  like  to  trespass  on  Mr.  Scott's  time,  I  should 
certainly  have  gone.  As  I  was  going  out  of  the  room,  she 
said,  "  Am  I  ever  to  see  you  again  in  this  world  ?"  I  hope 
to  pass  eternity  with  her.  It  is  wonderful  to  me  to  think 
what  a  place  she  has  occupied  in  my  life,  since  I  have 
become  acquainted  with  her.  Her  husband  has  been  sup- 
ported in  a  wonderful  manner.     He  and  Madlle.  Pomaret 


MT.  49. 


MRS.  STIRLING.  223 


never  left  her  bedside  after  the  fever  decidedly  took  posses- 
sion of  her.  Madame  Vernet  yesterday  read  me  a  letter  of 
Madlle.  Pomaret  to  Adele,1  in  which  she  speaks  of  him  as 
of  one  who  has  consecrated  himself  to  God ;  she  says,  "  Au- 
pres  de  lui,  je  me  trouve  comme  dans  une  £glise ;  il  est 
saint."  The  impression  that  she  herself  made  on  all  the 
servants  and  doctors  that  came  wTas  remarkable ;  they  felt 
that  she  was  holy.  And  now  she  is  no  more  seen  of  men; 
her  feet,  which  here  were  shod  with  the  preparedness  of 
the  gospel  of  peace,  now  stand  in  the  gates  of  the  New 
Jerusalem.  Her  son  was  absent  on  a  walking  expedition, 
so  that  they  did  not  know  where  he  was,  or  how  to  reach 
him.  Louise  was  at  Milan  ;  since  she  heard  of  it  her  grief 
has  been  violent.  The  God  of  blessing  give  them  all  a 
blessing  in  this  bitter  cup.  I  have  seen  old  Madame 
Necker,  to  whom  she  was  as  a  daughter,  the  most  affec- 
tionate of  daughters.   .  .  , 

98.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS    STIRLING. 

Geneva,  Oct.  10,  1838. 
My  dear  Christian, — I  have  lost  a  great  friend,  a  dear 
friend,  since  I  last  wrote  to  you.  Madame  de  Broglie's 
death  has  changed  the  world  for  me  a  good  deal.  Her 
acquaintance  has  been  a  considerable  feature  in  my  life, 
more  so,  indeed,  than  that  of  any  person  whom  I  have  not 
known  from  infancy.  There  was  an  activity  in  her  friend- 
ship— an  activity  both  of  heart  and  of  intelligence — that  I 
never  met  with  except  in  Dr.  Stuart,  and  an  activity  which 
was  continually  directed  upwards.  Her  character  had  un- 
dergone a  great  change  since  I  last  saw  her ;  she  was  not 
more  occupied  about  eternal  things,  but  her  occupation  with 
them  was  much  more  healthy ;  she  seemed  to  me  to  live 
much  in  the  spirit  of  prayer,  enjoying  the  love  and  peace  of 
1  Madame  de  Stael,  sister-in-law  to  Madame  de  Broglie. 


224  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1838. 

God  to  a  great  degree,  and  making  it  her  business  to  learn 
His  righteousness.  I  wish  you  had  seen  her ;  although  I 
believe  you  will  soon  see  her,  and  see  her  in  a  form  which 
will  still  more  perfectly  utter  that  spiritual  beauty  which  her 
Creator  intended  her  to  utter  than  the  form  in  which  I  have 
known  her ;  but  yet  I  wish  you  had  seen  her,  that  you  might 
understand  what  I  mean  when  I  say  that  she  and  our 
brother  James  were  the  two  most  perfect  symbols,  in  their 
persons,  of  a  spiritual  being,  having  a  mission  to  fulfil  in 
this  world,  and  not  belonging  to  it,  that  I  have  met  with 
in  my  pilgrimage.  I  always  thought  James  most  beautiful, 
and  I  thought  her  most  beautiful.  They  were  both  like 
what  I  can  suppose  glorified  humanity  will  be.  There  was 
an  unspeakable  charm  about  her  •  such  a  truth  of  heart, 
which  used  a  most  remarkable  intelligence  only  for  the 
purposes  of  truth.  I  may  have  as  much  intercourse  with 
her  still,  of  the  most  profitable  sort ;  but  I  cannot  help 
feeling  the  earth  much  emptier  for  her  removal. 

Oct.  14. — I  have  been  at  church,  where  I  met  Madame 
Vernet,  who  told  me  that  yesterday  she  had  a  letter  from 
M.  de  Broglie  himself,  poor  man.  I  intend  to  go  out  to 
Carra  (her  campagne)  to-morrow,  to  see  more  of  her,  and 
to  hear  of  these  mourners.  I  am  now  living  by  myself, 
which  I  have  not  done  since  I  left  England,  having  first 
had  Mr.  Campbell  and  afterwards  Mr.  Scott  for  my  com- 
panion. They  are  both  remarkable  men  ;  but  Scott  is,  in 
point  of  intellect,  one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  first,  man  that 
1  have  known.  I  had  an  interlude  of  Dr.  Chalmers  for 
some  days  as  a  variety.  He  went  with  me  to  Broglie, 
where  he  was  delighted  with  her,  and  she  with  him ;  that 
is  with  his  honesty,  and  his  naturalness,  and  his  kindliness; 
dear  woman,  when  we  took  our  leave,  she  told  me  that  she 
did  not  consider  that  as  a  visit  from  me,  for  that  she  had 
been  so  entirely  occupied  with  Dr.  Chalmers ;  she  said,  "  I 


,et.  50.  REV.  J.  APLEOD  CAMPBELL.  225 

know  you  will  not  be  hurt  by  it."  The  last  day  that  I 
saw  her  was  the  21st  of  August ;  there  was  something  in 
our  meeting  like  a  farewell,  like  a  leave-taking ;  she  spoke 
of  the  danger  of  being  carried  away  by  particular  ideas ; 
she  expressed  her  fear  for  me  in  that  respect,  saying  at  the 
same  time  that,  although  younger  than  I  was,  she  felt  some- 
thing like  a  maternal  care  for  me,  as  well  as  a  sisterly,  and 
she  gave  me  a  lithograph  etching  of  one  of  Overbeck's  little 
pieces — Jesus  standing  at  the  door  and  knocking ;  she  wrote 
the  date  under  it,  21st  August,  and  "II  n'y  a  point  d'autre 
Sauveur  que  moi."  He  was  indeed  knocking  at  the  door  for 
her,  in  a  sense  which  neither  of  us  thought  of  at  the  time; 
though  she  told  me  that  she  often  felt  a  most  remarkable 
longing  for  death.  All  her  outward  relations  were  happy, 
and  yet  she  had  a  deep  melancholy  that  perpetually  weighed 
upon  her  heart.  I  had  a  letter  yesterday  from  cousin 
Eachel ;  I  am  glad  to  hear  good  accounts  of  her  invalids. 
.  .  .  Yours  ever,  T.  E. 

99.    TO  THE  REV.  JOHN  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL. 

Geneva,  17th  Oct.  1838. 

Dear  Brother, — I  heard  of  your  marriage  from  my 
sister,  Mrs.  Paterson.  May  the  Lord  abundantly  bless 
you  and  her  in  your  relation  to  each  other,  and  make  you 
instruments  of  righteousness  in  the  church  and  in  the  world. 
I  hope  you  may  both  prove  in  your  own  hearts  that  your 
union  is  of  the  Lord. 

Your  marriage  took  place  just  four  days  after  the  death 
of  Madame  de  Broglie.  I  think  I  showed  you  that  little 
engraving  which  she  gave  me  that  last  day  that  I  saw  her 
in  Paris,  representing  Jesus  standing  at  the  door  and  knock- 
ing. How  little  did  I  realise  at  the  time  that  Jesus  was 
so  soon  to  open  the  door  of  her  clay  prison,  and  give  a  full 
release  to  her  blessed  yet  wearied  spirit  from  the  conflict 

l' 


226  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSK1NE.  1838. 

of  this  world  !  I  cannot  express  to  you  what  a  gap  her 
removal  makes  to  me  in  this  visible  order  of  things.  She 
was  connected  in  my  mind  with  every  subject  of  thought, 
and  she  possessed  that  idiosyncrasy,  that  individuality  that 
prevents  the  possibility  of  her  idea  ever  being  confounded 
or  mixed  up  with  the  idea  of  any  other  being.  No  other 
creature  could  fill  the  place  which  she  filled  in  the  minds 
and  lives  of  those  who  knew  her. 

Her  husband  has  received  the  stroke  as  from  God,  and 
though  desolate  is  supported.  I  can  conceive  no  resource 
for  a  human  heart  that  has  lost  what  he  has  lost  but  in  an 
entire  surrender  of  itself  to  God.  In  the  meantime  this 
seems  to  be  his  own  feeling ;  he  seems  to  desire  simply  to 
do  and  to  receive  the  will  of  God.  Her  friendship  has 
been  to  me  a  great  gift.  She  has  been  a  witness  to  me  for 
God,  a  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness.  She  has  been  a 
warner  and  a  comforter.  I  have  seen  her  continually 
thirsting  after  a  spiritual  union  with  God.  I  have  heard 
the  voice  of  her  heart  crying  after  God  out  from  the  midst 
of  all  things  which  make  this  life  pleasant  and  satisfying. 
She  had  a  husband  whose  thoughts  were  large  and  high, 
and  whose  character  was  noble,  affectionately  attached  to 
her.  She  had  amiable,  promising  children.  She  had  her- 
self all  the  gifts  of  mind  and  character — intelligence,  imagi- 
nation, nobleness,  and  thoughts  that  wandered  through 
eternity.  She  had  a  heart  fitted  for  friendship,  and  she 
had  friends  who  could  appreciate  her  ;  but  her  God  suffered 
her  not  to  find  rest  in  these  things,  her  ear  was  opened  to 
His  own  paternal  voice,  and  she  became  His  child,  in  the 
way  that  the  world  is  not  and  knoAveth  not.  I  see  her 
before  me,  her  loving  spirit  uttering  itself  through  every 
feature  of  her  beautiful  and  animated  countenance. 

Remember  me  most  kindly  to  your  brother  and  his  wife, 
and  to  the  Macnabbs.     Farewell.  T.  Erskine. 


/ET.  50.  MRS.  PATERSON. 


100.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  PATERSON. 

Geneva,  15th  Nov.  [1838]. 
Dearest  Davie, — I  have  just  returned  from  a  visit  to 
Lausanne,  where  I  had  much  enjoyment.  Vinet  is  a 
delightful  man,  simple  and  natural,  with  a  kindly  sense  of 
the  ludicrous  in  him,  and  most  candid.  Manuel,  the  other 
eye  of  Lausanne,  is  dead.  He  was  my  first  continental 
friend — in  1822.1  I  made  his  acquaintance  when  your  dear 
Ann  was  four  months  old.  Vinet  was  very  willing  to  con- 
fer with  me,  but  he  is  so  continually  besieged  with  visitors 
that  it  is  not  easy  to  get  him  for  any  length  of  time  alone. 
I  saw  others  of  the  Lausanne  pastors  and  professors  and 
young  ministers,  and  I  observed  Vinet's  mark  upon  them 
all.  There  is  no  narrowness  about  them,  and  they  are 
more  natural,  apparently  living  less  by  rule  than  by  a  living 
instinct.  The  successful  candidate  for  one  of  their  theolo- 
gical chairs  within  the  last  two  months,  acknowledged  his 
belief  of  a  universal  final  restoration,  and  this  to  the  judges 
on  whom  his  election  depended.  Vinet  drove  me  out  (in 
a  char)  to  a  family  in  the  country,  the  lady  of  which  had 
translated  one  of  my  books,  but  had  been  prevented  from 
publishing  it  by  hearing  that  Madame  de  Broglie  was 
engaged  in  the  same  thing.  I  found  her  a  very  interesting- 
person,  full  of  heart  and  simplicity.     I  promised  to  send 

1  "Le  pasteur  Manuel  etait  on  de  ces  hommes  dont  ne  cessent  de 
parler  tous  ceux  qui  les  ont  connus,  mais  dont  les  generations  suivantes 
savent  a  peine  le  nora.  ...  La  sagesse  et  la  poesie  decoulaient  de  son 
ame,  '  comme  le  miel  d'un  rayon  trop  pleine.'  Le  mot  est  de  Vinet,  qui 
ne  peut  assez  dire  le  Men  que  cet  homme  a  fait  en  causant.  '  Le  charme 
de  sa  conversation  etait  si  grand,  dit-il,  qu'on  ne  croyait  d'abord  avoir  que 
du  plaisir ;  mais  en  revenant  par  le  souvenir  sur  une  heure  delicieuse 
passee  aupres  de  cet  incomparable  causeur,  on  etait  surpris  de  se  trouver 
riche  d'une  vertu  de  plus,  s'il  est  permis  d'appeler  ainsi  toute  puissance 
qui  porte  vers  le  bien  et  vers  la  verite.'" — Alexandre  Vinet,  Histoire  de 
sa  Vie  et  de  ses  Ouvrages,  par  E.  Rambert.  Troisieme  Edition.  Laus- 
anne, 1876. 


228  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1838. 

her  the  book  on  Election.  I  wish  to  re-write  that  book, 
to  make  it  more  compact  and  more  orderly,  and  I  think 
that  I  could  probably  do  it  better  in  Switzerland  than  in 
Italy.  Madame  Cramer,  dear,  kind  woman,  is  urging  me 
very  much  to  come  to  her  house.  ...  T.  Erskine. 

101.    TO  MADAME  FOREL. 

Geneve,  19th  Nov.  1838. 

Dear  Madame, — I  send  you  my  book  on  the  doctrine 
of  Election,  or  rather  on  the  doctrine  of  Conscience,  for 
that  would  be  the  truest  description  of  its  contents,  and  at 
the  same  time  I  would  commend  it  to  your  patience,  and 
indulgence,  and  candour.  You  will  often  feel  surprised 
and  even  shocked  in  reading  it, — you  will  be  sometimes 
tempted  to  think  me  a  mere  rationalist,  but  I  know  that 
I  am  not  so. 

The  leading  idea  of  the  book  is  that  each  individual  man 
is  a  little  world  in  which  that  whole  history  which  took 
place  in  Judea  1800  years  ago  is  continually  reproduced. 
Each  of  us  is,  or  has  been,  that  world  spoken  of  in  St.  John 
i.  1 0,  "  He  was  in  the  world,  and  the  world  was  made  by 
Him,  and  the  world  knew  Him  not."  I  believe  that  the 
light  which  shines  in  each  man's  conscience  is  the  real  pre- 
sence of  Jesus,  "  the  Word  which  was  with  God,  and  was 
God,"  and  that  the  egoism  and  vanity  and  hypocrisy,  and 
worldly  and  fleshly  desires  within  us,  are  represented  by 
the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  and  Sadducees,  Herod  and  Pilate, 
etc.  I  believe  that  the  presence  of  Jesus  in  us,  with  His 
quickening  (vivifiant)  spirit,  gives  to  each  of  us  the  power, 
whether  we  use  it  or  not,  of  joining  and  taking  part  with 
Him  against  the  evils  of  our  own  hearts,  and  I  believe  that 
in  as  far  as  we  do  so  we  become  partakers  of  His  nature 
and  members  of  His  body.  I  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  one 
Elect,  and  that  those  who  by  thus  taking  part  with  Jesus 


/et.  50.  MADAME  FOR  EL.  229 


become  members  of  His  body,  become  also  members  of  the 
election,  and  that  those  who  continue  to  resist  Him  shut 
themselves  out  from  the  election.  In  this  way  also  I  be- 
lieve that,  as  Christ  was  really  given  to  men  immediately 
after  the  Fall,  all  are  elect  in  Him,  He  being  in  them  all, 
and  all  are  reprobate  or  rejected  in  the  first  Adam  ;  but 
that  we  can  make  either  our  election  Or  our  reprobation 
sure  by  joining  ourselves  either  to  the  one  party  or  the 
other.  I  believe  that  God  takes  the  first  step  to  every 
man,  and  draws  every  man  by  His  Spirit,  and  that  man's 
part  is  acceptance  and  yielding. 

I  am  sensible  that  many  readers  may  be  tempted  to 
think,  from  my  dwelling  so  much  on  the  internal  history 
of  Christianity  in  the  individual,  that  I  overlook  or  under- 
value the  external  facts  ;  but  my  desire  was  to  restore  what 
I  conceived  the  lost  equilibrium  by  drawing  the  attention 
to  that  part  which  had  been  generally  neglected.  I  also 
wished  to  show  that  we  really  do  not  and  cannot  under- 
stand the  outward  history  of  Christ  until  we  recognise  its 
correspondence  with  this  inward  history.  The  very  same 
mysteries  which  appear  in  the  outward  history  of  Christ 
are  to  be  found  in  our  own  hearts  ;  and  when  we  find  them 
there,  although  we  do  not  comprehend  them  the  more  on 
that  account  by  our  understanding,  yet  we  feel  that  we 
get  the  explanation  of  them.  I  believe  also  that  as  each 
man  is  a  world,  and  a  resemblance  of  the  large  world,  so 
the  whole  mass  of  individuals  constitute  another  unity, 
another  world,  and  that  as  Jesus  is  in  each  man,  so  He  is 
the  new  and  heavenly  root  of  spiritual  life  to  this  larger 
world,  and  that  what  He  did  outwardly  for  the  larger  was 
for  the  purpose  of  bringing  this  life  and  light  inwardly  to 
all  the  individuals.  But  I  need  not  go  over  these  things. 
After  you  have  read  it,  if  your  patience  holds  out  so  long, 
I  shall  be  most  happy  to  converse  with  you  about  it.     I 


230  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1838. 

feel  very  much  obliged  to  M.  Vinet  for  having  introduced 
me  to  the  acquaintance  of  yourself  and  Mr.  F.  Indeed, 
my  visit  to  Lausanne  was  altogether  most  gratifying  to  me, 
I  met  with  so  much  fraternity  and  so  much  candour.  Fare- 
well for  the  present,  and  I  remain,  with  much  respect  and 
regard,  your  obedient  servant,  T.  Erskine. 

102.    TO  THE  REV.  ALEX.  J.  SCOTT. 

Geneva,  2d  December  1838. 

My  dear  Friend, — I  ought  before  now  to  have  acknow- 
ledged your  letter.  You  see  that  I  am  still  here.  I  am 
still,  however,  in  the  expectation  of  spending  at  least  a 
part  of  the  winter  at  Rome.  I  have  a  wish  to  see  that 
world's  grave  again,  and  to  listen  to  the  voice  which  comes 
out  of  it.  You  will  have  heard  that  Sir  John  Hay  died 
there  a  month  ago  ;  poor  Lady  Hay  will  be  a  very  desolate 
widow.  Manuel  also  is  dead.  Both  of  these  men  had  a 
great  enjoyment  of  life,  though  in  very  different  ways. 

I  passed  a  week  lately  at  Lausanne,  and  saw  a  good  deal 
of  Vinet  and  of  some  of  the  others,  pastors  and  professors. 
Vinet  is  very  amiable,  very  natural,  and  has  that  basis 
of  thought  in  him  on  which  thoughts  from  all  quarters  can 
find  a  footing  or  a  rooting.  I  like  him  so  much  that  I 
could  be  tempted  to  spend  the  winter  at  Lausanne,  if  I  did 
not  see  that  he  is  in  such  continual  request  as  would  prevent 
much  quiet  personal  intercourse.  His  sermons,  Discours 
sur  quelques  sujets  religieux,  are  very  interesting.  He  is 
always  aiming  at  the  terrain  comman,  though  I  do  not  find 
that  he  hits  it.  It  is  obvious  that  the  pastoral  and  pro- 
fessorial society  there  is  much  influenced  by  him.  Some 
of  the  young  clergy  I  liked  very  much  ;  they  are  simple- 
hearted  and  free,  and  undogmatical.  There  has  never  been 
any  distinctly  avowed  heterodoxy  at  Lausanne,  so  that 
they  have  had  no  call  to  define  their  faith,  like  our  Gene- 


,i:t.  50.  REV.  ALEX.  J.  SCOTT.  231 

vese  friends.  I  was  present  at  a  public  disputation,  at 
which  a  dissertation  by  a  candidate  for  the  philosophical 
chair  in  the  Academy  was  attacked  and  defended.  The 
title  of  the  dissertation  was  Science  et  Foi,  and  its  avowed 
object  was  to  show  that  philosophy  rightly  pursued  would 
reproduce  the  truths  of  Christianity,  so  that  the  objects 
of  faith  would  be  verified  by  the  intelligence.  The  dis- 
putation was  not  interesting,  but  I  have  read  the  discourse 
with  considerable  interest ;  and  if  I  return  to  Lausanne  I 
think  I  shall  try  to  see  the  writer.  His  discourse  contains 
a  history  of  philosophy,  which  he  considers  as  the  history 
of  the  development  of  the  human  mind.  Schelling  and 
Hegel  are,  according  to  him,  the  men  who  have  put  the 
top-stone  on  the  building  commenced  by  Descartes  on  the 
subjective  side  and  by  Bacon  on  the  objective,  for  he  com- 
mences his  historical  sketch  with  these  moderns.  I  shall 
quote  for  your  behoof  one  of  his  theses  which  he  undertakes 
to  defend  :  "  La  justice  est  composee  de  deux  edemens,  la 
justice  qui  punit  et  la  justice  qui  pardonne.  La  misericorde 
est  un  devoir  de  la  justice,  comme  la  s6verit6  et  la  peine  ; 
ou  plutot  la  peine  n'a  pour  but  que  l'absolution." 

Dear  Mme.  Cramer  is  full  of  kindness,  and  her  whole 
family,  so  also  is  Mme.  Vernet  ;  but  I  have  little  inter- 
course with  Gaussen  and  Merle,  etc. ;  they  are  occupied 
with  their  Academy.  I  must  copy  another  thesis  of  this 
philosophical  candidate:  "  C'est  aller  contre  l'esprit  du 
protestantisme  que  d'envisager  la  Bible  comme  la  base  et 
le  principe  unique  de  notre  foi." 

I  see  something  more  of  Diodati,1  but  he  also  is  very 
busy,  having  engaged  to  give  a  course  on  the  revival  of 
philosophy.  I  heard  his  opening  lecture,  which  was  very 
good.  Give  my  affectionate  regards  to  your  people,  your 
own  household,  Wedgwood,  etc.  T.  Erskine. 

1  Married  to  one  of  the  Vernets. 


232  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1839. 

103.  TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  STIRLING. 

Geneve,  3d  Jan,  1839. 
Dearest  Christian, —  ...  I  have  just  returned  from 
a  visit  to  Lausanne,  where  I  have  spent  a  week  very  plea- 
santly in  the  society  of  some  very  estimable  people,  who 
have  shown  me  much  friendship.     If  Davie  has  sent  you 
Vinet's  book,  you  will  be  able  in  some  degree  to  judge  of 
his  interesting  mind ;  but  his  humble  aud  gentle  and  sensi- 
tive character  gives  his  personal  intercourse  a  charm  which 
cannot  be  communicated  by  any  book  containing  merely 
expositions  of  trains  of  thought.     When  I  was  there,  he 
and  many  more  whom  I  saw  were  much  occupied  with  the 
project  of  a  law  for  new-modelling  in  some  respects  their 
ecclesiastical  constitution ;  his  reputation  for  wisdom  and 
conscientiousness  forces  him  into  situations  of  trust  and 
responsibility,  which  he  would  thankfully  keep  out  of,  and 
he  is  at  present  at  the  head  of  an  ecclesiastical  commission, 
which  is  charged  with  the  appointment  of  ministers  and 
assistants  through  the  Canton,  which  makes  great  demands 
on  his  time  and  on  his  peace.    His  wife  is  a  very  pleasant, 
intelligent,  unpretending  person  ;  they  lost  a  daughter  last 
year,  grown  up,  and  their  only  child  now  is  a  son  of  nine- 
teen, who  has  been  deaf  since  he  was  nine  or  ten,  and  whose 
development,  in  consequence,  has  been  much  stopped.    I  see 
this  is  a  great  trial  to  them  ;  and  she  seems  to  desire  to  find 
the  broken  body  of  Jesus  meat  indeed,  and  His  blood  drink 
indeed.     The  question  of  the  eternity  of  punishments  has 
been  stirred  at  Lausanne,  by  the  circumstance  that  a  can- 
didate for  one  of  the  theological  chairs  refused  to  subscribe 
to  the  common  doctrine  ;  notwithstanding  this  refusal,  he 
was  elected,     Vinet  only  says,  "  La  lumiere  me  manque." 

There  is  a  very  singularly  interesting  young  man  whose 
acquaintance  I  also  made,  of  a  profoundly  mystical  charac- 


jet.  50.  MADAME  VI NET.  233 

ter,  as  well  as  understanding,  a  disciple  of  Jacob  Boehme, 
who  gave  me  a  sketch  of  a  work  to  which  he  has  devoted 
his  life  ;  he  spoke  to  me  for  I  daresay  three  hours  without 
intermission,  opening  up  to  me  a  fine  heart  and  a  rich 
understanding.  I  found  him  agonised  in  his  spirit  about 
the  destiny  of  the  fallen  angels ;  there  is  something  very 
interesting  in  this  for  the  heart,  and  liis  love  for  these 
beings  does  not  interfere  with  his  love  for  his  own  kind. 
He  considers  this  world  and  the  constitution  of  time  as  a 
remedial  dispensation,  arising  out  of  the  fall  of  an  angelic 
race — a  parenthesis  in  the  midst  of  eternity — and  his  work 
is  to  be  a  history  of  TIME.  .  .  . 

104.  TO  MADAME  VINET. 

Geneve,  6th  Feb.  1S39. 
M.  Bost  has  brought  me  the  little  brochure,  and  the  very 
welcome  letter  which  accompanied  it.  I  have  been  enter- 
ing into  the  feelings  which,  I  knew,  the  late  proceedings 
in  your  Canton  on  the  subject  of  religion  would  excite  in 
you.  It  is  a  call  to  humiliation  and  prayer,  not  to  dis- 
couragement ;  for  the  results  are  in  God's  hands,  and  He 
maketh  all  things  work  together  for  good  to  those  that  love 
Him.  The  present  condition  of  things  at  Zurich  is  a  re- 
markable instance  of  good  coming  out  of  apparent  evil. 
What  I  fear  most,  in  Switzerland  as  well  as  elsewhere,  is 
that  the  contest  should  become  a  contest  of  opinions,  a  con- 
test between  orthodoxy  and  heterodoxy,  instead  of  a  con- 
test between  the  spirit  and  the  flesh,  between  spiritual  life 
and  spiritual  death.  Our  business  is  to  give  utterance  to 
that  voice  which  the  Spirit  of  God  speaks  in  our  consciences, 
and  this  utterance  is  to  come  not  out  of  our  mouths  only 
but  out  of  our  lives.  Each  man  is  called  to  be  a  member 
of  the  Incarnate  Word  ;  that  is,  to  have  the  will  of  God 
expressed  in  his  flesh,  and  so  written  in  his  flesh  .as  to  be 


234  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1839. 


seen  and  read  of  all  men.  What  a  fearful  difference  be- 
tween what  we  ought  to  be  and  what  we  are  !  Our  call- 
ing is  to  be  like  Christ ;  filled  with  the  spirit  of  Christ ; 
uttering  in  our  words  and  actions  the  mind  of  God  ;  and 
what  are  we  1  Alas  !  I  know  for  myself  how  little  of  all 
that  is  accomplished  in  me  ;  and  how  little  the  witness 
which  my  mouth  gives  for  God's  truth  is  supported  by 
living  holiness  in  my  inward  and  outward  history.  We 
are  then  true  witnesses  for  Christ,  and  then  only,  when  we 
are  ourselves  experiencing  and  showing  forth  in  our  per- 
sons His  death  and  resurrection ;  the  dying  unto  man's 
will,  the  living  unto  God's  will.  The  comfort  is,  that  the 
cause  of  true  religion  in  man's  heart,  and  in  the  world,  is 
the  cause  of  God.  God's  heart  yearns  over  it,  and  God's 
power  sustains  it.  We  forget  where  our  great  strength 
lies,  when  Ave  look  to  any  human  strength  for  the  support 
of  the  church.  Our  strength  is  in  our  Head,  in  Him  who 
said,  "  I  have  overcome  the  world,"  and  faith  is  really  a 
confidence  in  the  unseen  strength  of  God,  supporting  us  in 
opposition  to  all  appearance  of  outward  strength  against  us. 
I  like  very  well  what  you  say  on  the  subject  of  my  book, 
although  I  don't  agree  with  the  application  of  it.  The 
question  is,  What  is  the  meaning  of  election  in  the  Bible  1 
You  say,  "  We  had  better  leave  the  matter  as  it  is  left 
in  the  Bible — the  two  extreme  points  stated — without 
attempting  to  reconcile  them."  My  answer  is,  I  think 
that  I  have  followed  the  Bible  ;  for  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
Bible  is  at  special  pains  to  deny  the  doctrine  of  personal 
election  in  its  ordinary  acceptation,  and  to  make  us  under- 
stand that  the  true  doctrine  is,  that  those  who  live  in  the 
.Spirit  are  the  children  of  God,  and  that  those  who  live  in 
their  own  independent  will  cannot  have  fellowship  with 
God,  and  that  all  have  to  choose  between  these  two  condi- 
tions.    The  difficulty  in  the  intellect  is  nothing ;  but  the 


jet.  50.  MRS.  SCOTT.  235 

difficulty  in  the  moral  conscience  is  not  nothing.  I  believe 
that  all  the  fundamental  spiritual  truths  are  out  of  the 
sphere  of  the  reasoning  faculty,  but  that  they  are  in  the 
sphere  of  conscience,  and  that  we  do  not  apprehend  them 
at  all,  unless  we  apprehend  them  in  our  consciences.  When 
Jesus  says  to  us,  "  Without  me  ye  can  do  nothing,"  He 
means  to  persuade  us  to  depend  upon  Him  for  our  spiritual 
life  ;  that  is,  He  means  to  dissuade  us  from  making  the 
wrong  choice  of  depending  on  ourselves,  for  surely  He  does 
not  mean  to  say,  You  have  no  power  to  choose  between 
dependence  on  me,  and  dependence  on  yourselves.  My 
conviction  of  the  importance  of  the  subject  is  a  very  deep 
conviction. 

I  am  very  happy  that  you  like  the  article  on  Sir  Walter 
Scott.  I  agree  with  you  in  thinking  that  the  views  in  it  are 
admirable.  You  are  the  first  foreigner  (as  we  call  all  but 
ourselves)  whom  I  have  found  capable  of  admiring  it.  The 
name  of  the  author  is  Carlyle,  a  man  of  most  original 
mind.  I  hope  to  profit  by  M.  de  Breule's  obliging  offer  to 
be  acquainted  with  me,  when  I  return  to  Lausanne.  Dear 
friend,  I  hope  that  this  is  not  the  last  letter  that  I  shall 
receive  from  you.  I  feel  much  obliged  to  you  for  your 
kindness.  I  feel  the  blessing  of  having  Christian  friends, 
friends  who  have  communion  with  God,  and  who,  when 
they  think  of  me  will  pray  for  me.  I  beg  my  respectful 
and  affectionate  regards  to  your  husband.  Farewell. — 
Yours  most  truly,  T.  Erskine. 

105.    TO  MRS.  SCOTT. 

Geneva,  20th  February  1839. 

Dear   Mrs.    Scott, — .  .  .    We   have   all    been  much 

scandalised  and  shocked  here  by  the  election  of  Strauss  (the 

author  of  that  strange  and  much-talked-of  book,  "  The  Life 

of  Jesus")  to  fill  one  of  the  chairs  in  the  Theological  School 


236  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1839. 


of  Zurich.  This  is  the  most  bare -faced  profession  of  infi- 
delity that  has  yet  been  made  in  Switzerland.  At  Lausanne 
also  some  very  unpleasant  demonstrations  against  piety 
and  religion  in  general  have  been  made  in  the  Council  of 
State  and  amongst  the  people,  on  the  occasion  of  proposing 
a  change  in  the  ecclesiastical  law,  of  which  the  giving  up 
of  the  old  Helvetic  Confession  of  Faith  was  to  form  a  part. 
And  here  at  Geneva,  in  an  appointment  to  one  of  the 
Theological  chairs,  my  friend  Diodati,  son-in-law  of  Madame 
Vernet,  has  been  defeated  by  a  man  who  is  acknowledged 
to  be  in  all  respects  his  inferior,  simply  because  he  holds 
the  Divinity  of  Christ  and  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement, 
which  the  other  rejects.  ...  I  have  made  the  acquaintance 
of  Mr,  Hare,  the  English  clergyman,  whom  I  like  exceed- 
ingly. He  is  a  simple-hearted  man,  very  quiet  and  yet 
zealous.  He  has  been  brought  up  in  the  evangelical 
school,  but  he  does  not  refuse  to  go  into  the  meanings  of 
the  words.  He  is  no  connection  of  the  Hares  that  we 
thought  he  belonged  to.  I  was  delighted  to  see  Wedgwood 
appointed  to  the  office  which  replaces  my  friend.  I  hope 
it  is  something  comfortable  in  point  of  salary,  and  unper- 
plexed,  at  least  morally,  in  its  administration.  .  .  . — 
Yours,  etc.,  T.  Erskine. 

106.    TO  CAPTAIN  PATERSON. 

Geneva,  2lst  March  1839. 
My  dear  James, — Davie's  short  letter  is  a  large  record 
of  the  goodness  of  God.  I  have  the  conviction,  which  I 
have  just  been  expressing  to  Mr.  Hare,  the  worthy  English 
clergyman  here,  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  sudden 
death,  in  the  strict  meaning  of  the  word  ;  I  believe  that 
God  always,  in  some  way  or  other,  warns  the  spirit  of  death 
before  He  sends  it.  We  know  not  what  had  passed  in 
's  heart  before  he  passed  into  eternity ;  but  we  see 


*t.  50.  MRS.  PATERSON.  .  237 

that  His  Father's  care  was  following  him,  and  that  the 
loving  message  which  He  sent  him  through  his  mother  was 
accompanied  with  an  inward  voice,  which  had  been  received 
into  his  conscience.  My  belief  in  the  continuation  of  the 
process  of  spiritual  education  beyond  this  life  relieves  me 
at  all  events  from  the  agonising  thought  that  twenty-six 
years  of  negligence  are  to  fix  the  eternal  condition  of  the 
soul  for  good  or  evil.  I  cannot  read  the  passage  contained 
in  the  11th  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Komans,  verses 
30-33,  without  wondering  that  any  should  think  that  the 
Bible  decidedly  teaches  that  doctrine.  .  .  Farewell. — Your 
affectionate  brother,  T.  Erskine; 

107.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  PATERSON. 

Geneva,  21th  March  1839. 
"  Mais  lors  meme  qu'une  pauvre  mere  croit,  et  ne  mur- 
mure  point,  elle  souffre  ;  les  jours  passent,  les  nuits  revien- 
nent,  le  soleil  se  leve  tous  les  matins.  Quelquefois,  il  semble 
qu'il  vient  nous  dire,  que  ce  n'est  pas  grande  chose,  que  la 
souffrance  dun  petit  etre  d'un  jour,  tel  que  nous ;  d'autre 
fois,  il  semble  nous  dire  de  la  part  du  Tres  Haut,  Je  suis 
toujours  le  meme  ;  rien  ne  pourra  diminuer  mon  pouvoir,  ma 
compassion,  ma  tendresse  pour  les  enfans  des  hommes ; 
courage,  ma  fille,  tonfils  nest  pas  mort,  mats  il  dort ;  et  a  ce 
langage,  si  r6el  quoique  silencieux,  notre  ame  se  releve,  elle 
est  soutenue,  elle  se  ranime  :  elle  sent  que  le  Seigneur  est  la." 

Dearest  Davie, — The  sentence  which  I  put  at  the  head 
of  my  letter  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  which  Madame  Ver- 
net  has  given  me  to  send  to  Mrs.  Patrick  [Stirling].1  You 
know  that  Madame  Vernet  lost  a  son  fifteen  years  ago,  in  a 
most  distressing  way.  There  was  a  fire  in  the  neighbourhood, 
and  young  Henri  Vernet,  about  twenty  years  of  age,  along 

1  Whose  son  had  been  killed  in  an  accident. 


233  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1839. 

with  several  of  his  companions,  went  to  give  their  assist- 
ance. Madame  V.  saw  her  son  enter  the  burning  house,  but 
she  never  saw  him  come  out ;  he  and  most  of  his  com- 
panions were  crushed  by  a  falling  beam.  Mrs.  Patrick's 
story  awakened  all  her  sympathy,  you  may  suppose,  and  she 
has  written  her  a  letter,  from  which  I  have  transcribed  this 
sentence,  which  appears  to  me  to  contain  a  very  touching 
and  beautiful  thought.  .  .  .  There  was  something  exceed- 
ingly tender  in  the  appointment  that  Mrs.  Patrick  should 
have  written  to  her  son  as  she  did,  and  that  he  should  have 
answered  her  as  he  did.  There  is  a  continually  watchful 
care  over  us,  ordering  all  our  lot,  every  step.  0  ye  of  little 
faith  !  How  my  conscience  answers  to  that  word  !  How 
reasonable  it  is  to  trust  ourselves  to  the  keeping  of  infinite 
love,  and  infinite  wisdom,  and  infinite  power !  We  feel 
that  we  cannot  choose  rightly  for  ourselves,  and  that  He 
cannot  choose  wrongly ;  and  do  we  not  know  that  all  the 
end  is  to  take  away  sin  1  Blessed  end  !  0  for  its  accom- 
plishment !     Farewell. 

108.    TO  MISS  RACHEL  ERSKINE. 

Geneva,  2Qth  April  1839. 
Dearest  Cousin, —  ...  I  have  much  pleasant  inter- 
course with  Madame  Vernet,  who  overflows  with  love  to 
God  and  man.  I  like  this  country  exceedingly;  I  like 
the  simplicity  of  their  way  of  life.  Very  few  people  here 
have  a  man-servant,  except  their  gardener,  who  is  also 
their  char-driver.  You  see  no  fine  furniture,  no  show  in 
any  department;  and  you  often  find  great  friendships 
between  their  highest  people  and  their  lowest.  There  is 
a  much  deeper  civilisation  here  than  with  us,  which  makes 
the  minds  of  all  ranks  more  capable  of  comprehending 
each  other.  But  it  is  a  civilisation  which  carries  simpli- 
city along  with  it,  because  it  is  a  more  mental  thing  than 
it  is  with  us.  T.  E. 


alt.  co.  MRS.  STIRLING.  230 


109.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  STIRLING. 

Geneve,  22d  May  1839. 
My  dear  Christian, —  ...  I  think  that  I  shall  go  to 
the  other  end  of  the  lake  very  soon,  that  I  may  see  a  little 
more  of  Vinet  before  I  leave  the  country.1  I  have  just  read 
a  most  exquisite  piece  of  criticism  by  him,  on  Lamartine's 
last  published  work,  in  the  Semeur,  a  periodical  which  often 
receives  contributions  from  him.  There  is  to  be  published 
immediately  an  important  work  of  his,  on  the  connection 
between  the  Church  and  State  ;  that  is  not  the  title,  but 
it  is  the  subject.  Madame  de  Stael  has  come  to  Geneva  since 
I  last  wrote  you ;  she  is  to  me  a  recaller  of  many  things. 
She  feels  herself  a  remnant,  for  she  had  completely  adopted 
her  husband's  family  ;  and  she  feels  herself  alone,  although 
her  own  most  amiable  family  open  their  hearts  to  her.  She 
has  brought  little  Paul  de  Broglie  with  her,  who  has  been 
committed  to  her  by  the  Duke ;  he  is  a  beautiful  boy,  liter 
his  mother  than  any  of  the  rest  in  the  form  of  his  face  and 
in  the  colour  of  his  eyes,  but  he  is  full  of  gaiety,  which  she 
never  was,  from  the  beginning.  .  .  .  Paul  not  only  recalls 
his  mother  to  Madame  de  Stael,  but  also  her  own  Auguste, 

1  "  11  n'etait  point  rare  que  des  etrangers  de  distinction,  en  sejour  ou  en 
passage  a  Lausanne,  souvent  attirees  par  la  renommee  de  Vinet,  vinssenl 
ajouter  a  l'eclat  modeste  et  au  clianne  de  ces  reunions  cordiales.  Un 
de  ceux  qu'on  y  vit  le  plus  souvent  fut  l'Ecossais  Erskine,  qui  avait  one 
maniere  si  origiuale  et  en  merae  temps  si  proi'onde  de  compreudre  le  chris 
tianisme.  '11  est  grandcment  lieretique,  dit-on,  ecrivait  Vinet;  mais  c'est 
un  bien  bon  chretien.'1  11  n'avait  rien  dans  l'esprit  d'agressif,  rien  qui 
appellat  la  discussion ;  sa  conversation  etait  serieuse  san  raideur,  noun  h- 
de  faits  et  d'apercus,  et  il  etait  rare  qu'on  le  quittat  sans  Ctre  riche  de 
quelque  idee  nouvelle.  Quand  il  reprit  le  chemin  de  l'Ecosse,  en  1839, 
apres  un  sejour  de  plusieurs  niois  a  Lausanne,  Vinet  et  lui  etaient  amis 
pour  la  vie." — Alexandre  Vinet,  Histoire  de  sa  Vie  et  ses  Oworages,  par 
E.  Rainbert  (Troisieme  Edition  ;  Lausanne,  1876),  tome  second,  p.  45. 

i  Lettre  a  Mdlle.  Elise  Vinet,  du  10  novembre  1S39. 


240  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1839. 

who  was  born  after  his  father's  death,  and  who  lived  till 
he  was  nearly  two  years  old — a  magnificent,  matured  child, 
she  says.  She  has  also  brought  with  her  a  most  striking 
portrait  of  Madame  de  B.,  taken  from  memory,  with  the 
assistance  of  a  very  poor  portrait,  by  a  lady  who  knew  her, 
and  who,  I  should  judge  from  the  expression,  must  have 
appreciated  her.  There  is  an  expression  of  sadness  in  it, 
such  as  I  scarcely  ever  saw  in  a  picture,  and  at  the  same 
time  she  seems  to  have  hold  of  a  strength  which  sustains 
her  under  it,  and  seems  to  draw  her  up  from  it.  It  is  a 
holy-looking  thing,  and  yet  there  is  a  most  agonising  inter- 
est in  it,  which  would  seem  incompatible  with  its  holiness. 
It  makes  one  understand  the  worship  of  saints  and  relics. 
I  have  written  to  M.  de  B.  to  ask  him  if  he  will  allow  me 
to  get  it  copied  here  by  a  lady  who  does  these  things  re- 
markably well,  and  he  has  answered  me  in  the  very  kindest 
manner,  giving  me  the  permission.  .  .  . — Yours  ever, 

T.  E. 

110.    TO  HIS  SISTER  MRS.  STIRLING. 

.  .  .  My  present  Avish  and  endeavour  is  to  turn  my  whole 
mind  and  strength  to  do  God's  will — not  to  look  forward 
or  behind,  but  giving  myself  up,  practically  up,  to  Him 
whom  my  soul  loveth. 

There  are  many  parts  of  the  Bible  from  which  I  have 
too  often  revolted,  when  setting  my  heart  on  things  below 
— those  parts  which  tell  that  tribulation  awaits  us  here, 
and  bid  us  raise  our  souls  to  heaven.  Now,  they  are  my 
delight,  and  my  comforters,  and  my  prayers.  I  have  not 
yet  that  spirit — the  spirit  of  a  pilgrim,  yet  a  willing  servant 
— but  I  aim  at  it,  and  I  feel  confident  God  will  give  it,  for 
Jesus'  sake.  I  wish  to  be  very  busy  in  the  duties  God  has 
given  me  to  do,  I  would  make  it  my  meat  to  do  His  will, 
and  pray  earnestly  that  I  may  so  be  brought  to  abide  in 


.«T.  50.  MRS.  STIRLING.  241 

Christ  that  His  character  of  holy  separatedness,  yet  con- 
tinued exertion,  may  be  given  to  me.  When  I  can  fix  my 
mind  on  this  object  of  my  existence,  I  feel  it  fills  it ;  I  feel 
happy  and  refreshed. 

There  is  a  young  man  dying  in  L whom  I  go  to  see 

when  I  want  peace.     His  is  a  singular  instance,  so  all  agree. 
Seldom  does  that  peace  which  Jesus  left  us  reign  so  purely 
in  the  spirit.     His  life  has  been  short,  but  important.    For 
some  time  the  conviction  of  sin,  and  an  unutterable  sense 
of  the  holiness  of  his  divine  Judge,  drove  him  to  such  de- 
spair as  to  unhinge  his  mind.     But  a  sight  of  a  crucified 
Saviour  dispelled  the  gloom.     One  cannot  look  on  him  with- 
out recognising  whose  he  is  and  whom  he  serves.     The  image 
of  the  Lamb  of  God  is  stamped  on  his  spirit,  and  shines 
through  the  very  expression  of  his  countenance.     To  see 
him  is  to  see  verified  the  promise,  "  Peace  I  leave  with 
you."     He  says  little,  but  that  little  emanates  from  deep 
feeling,  and  is  as  opposed  to  a  wordy  profession  as  light 
to  darkness.     He  assents  to  nothing  that  he  has  not  felt 
and  been  influenced  by.     He  is  not  well  enough  to  read  to 
himself,  but  his  mind  dwells  on  the  promises  which  are  hid 
in  his   heart.     I  bid   him  repeat  to  me  what  comforted 
him;  he  repeated  the  last  verses  of  Ps.  lxxiii.,  and  then  the 
two  last  of  Rom.  viii.     He  does  not  suffer ;  his  peace  never 
varies.     Every  thought,  every  hope,  hinges  on  the  Saviour. 
He  abides  in  Him,  and  oh,  how  richly  does  Christ  abide 
in  this  dying  saint !     I  but  once  heard  him  sigh ;  it  was 
when  I  asked  him  if  he  would  be  satisfied  yet  to  live  a  long 
life  here  below.     He  sighed  and  paused,  and  hesitatingly 
said,  "  Christ  would  give  me  grace  to  be  resigned  to  His 
will,  but  oh,  to  be  with  Him  would  be  far  better."  .  .  .  Yet 
blessed  be  Cod,  I  think  that  I  feel  more  that  my  only  hope 
and  my  satisfying  portion  is  in  heaven.     I  think  I  in  some 
degree  close  with  that  covenant  which  says,  "  In  the  world 

Q 


242  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1839. 

ye  shall  have  tribulation ;"  because  in  Christ  I  find  peace. 
Yet  oh,  how  dependent  at  each  moment  am  I ;  and  I  am 
willing  to  be  so.  I  cast  myself  on  Jesus ;  Lord  save  me.  .  . 
.  .  .  The  very  Rev.  old  Ebenezer  Brown1  I  have  twice 
heard  preach,  and  a  most  interesting  exhibition  it  is;  he 
is  a  specimen  of  old  Presbyterian  eloquence  and  style. 
There  is  something  very  dignified  in  his  energetic  yet  sub- 
dued manner;  his  old  broad  Scotch,  his  deep  sonorous 
voice,  rendered  very  inarticulate  now  from  old  age,  but 
famed  in  his  youth  for  reaching  a  mile  at  tent  preachings ; 
and  oh  how  fain  would  he  that  it  reached  many  and  many 
a  mile,  if  he  could  but  bring  poor  sinners  to  his  loved 
Saviour !  Somehow,  every  word  he  utters  melts  me  to 
tears ;  Christ  crucified  is  all  his  theme,  all  his  salvation, 
and  all  his  desire.  Humility,  simplicity,  serene  peace,  and 
that  single  repose  in  the  Saviour  which  has  brought  the 
spirit  of  Jesus  so  eminently  and  so  purely  into  his  heart 
and  life,  are  what  characterise  this  aged  saint.  The  pathos, 
the  spirit,  the  unction  of  his  preaching,  surpasses  all  elo- 
quence, and  is  overcoming  to  an  unutterable  degree ;  none 
could  imitate  it,  none  could  ever  equal  it,  unless  imbued 
with  the  same  spirit  from  on  high.  .  .  . 

111.    TO  CRAMER  MALLET. 

Veytaux,  22d  June  IS 39. 
Dear  Friend, —  .  .  .  This  place  is  surpassingly  beauti- 
ful ;  it  speaks  of  "  Him  who  in  His  strength  setteth  fast 
the  mountains,  who  is  girded  about  with  power."  The  lake, 
which  is  so  sweet  and  gentle,  and  so  full  of  light,  adds  its 
testimony  that  the  Mighty  One  is  also  the  Loving  One.  You 
know  the  villages  that  are  scattered  so  beautifully  along 

1  Of  Inverkeitliing.  See  the  exquisite  sketch  of  him  by  his  grand- 
nephew,  Dr.  John  Brown,  in  a  letter  to  John  Cairns,  D.D.,  in  the  Horce 
Subsecivce,  Second  Series,  pp.  270-276. 


jet.  50.  CRAMER  MALLET.  243 

the  foot  of  the  mountains,  detached  from  each  other,  and 
surrounded  each  by  its  own  forest,  and  yet  united  together 
by  their  simple  footpaths  and  by  their  common  connection 
with  one  church,  which  calls  out  their  peaceful  families  by 
its  well-known  bell,  and  collects  them  for  one  common 
purpose. 

I  am  at  Veytaux  in  the  parish  of  Montreux,  in  the 
Maison  Masson.  Excellent  quiet  people.  Under  me 
lives  the  suffragan  of  the  minister  of  Montreux,  of  whom 
my  landlord's  son  (who  was  my  guide  in  a  beautiful  walk 
this  morning)  gave  me  a  very  pleasing  account.  Write 
me  a  note  like  a  good  man,  and  tell  me  about  dear  Merle 
and  his  wife.  Give  them  my  most  affectionate  regards 
and  fullest  sympathy.  I  like  to  think  of  them  and  to 
grieve  with  them,  hoping  that  all  their  sorrows  will  one 
day  be  turned  into  joys.  Farewell,  dear  friend,  and  with 
best  regards  to  your  own  good  family,  mother,  sister, 
daughter, — I  remain,  yours  ever,  T.  Erskine. 


244  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1840. 


CHAPTER    XL 

Letters  from  1840  till  1844. 

The  twenty  years  of  Mr.  Erskine's  life  from  1 840  to  1 860 
were  in  striking  contrast  with  those  immediately  preceding. 
From  1828  till  1840  pamphlet  after  pamphlet,  volume  after 
volume,  was  published ;  meetings  were  held,  addresses 
delivered,  means  of  all  kinds,  public  and  private,  employed 
for  the  dissemination  of  his  favourite  ideas.  On  his  return 
from  the  Continent  in  1840  all  this  was  changed.  The 
pulpit  of  Broughty-Ferry  Chapel  was  never  again  entered ; 
the  servants'  hall  at  Linlathen  no  longer  used  for  other 
than  strictly  domestic  purposes ;  not  a  single  volume  from 
his  pen  appeared.  It  was  not  that  his  thoughts  TOere 
less  intently  occupied  with  the  great  truths  of  Christianity, 
or  that  his  faith  in  them  had  failed ;  it  was  not  that  the 
ardent  desire  to  have  those  forms  and  aspects  of  these  truths 
in  which  they  presented  themselves  to  his  own  mind  wel- 
comed by  others  had  in  any  way  abated.  But  it  does  look 
as  if  his  experience  had  satisfied  him  that  it  was  not  in  the 
direction  either  of  controversy  or  outward  activities  of 
any  kind  that  his  strength  could  be  best  employed — as  if 
his  hopes  of  influencing  thereby  the  opinion  or  action  of 
the  Churches  had  collapsed — as  if  he  had  lost  heart  even 
for  the  quieter  method  of  speaking  through  the  press.  The 
entire  cessation  from  authorship  seems  the  more  remarkable 


MX.  51.  JAMES  MACKENZIE.  245 


considering  the  exceptionally  favourable  circumstances  in 
which  he  was  placed, — in  the  full  maturity  of  his  powers, 
with  no  domestic  or  professional  demands  upon  his  time, 
no  political  or  ecclesiastical  entanglements  to  warp  or 
bias  his  opinions.  He  had  always  indeed  a  very  lowly 
estimate  of  his  own  writings,  and  of  any  power  over 
others  they  might  possibly  exert,  and  this  may  in  part 
have  restrained  him  from  publishing.  If,  however,  in  con- 
sequence of  his  retirement  into  private  life  and  abstinence 
from  authorship,  the  sphere  of  his  influence  in  one  way 
became  narrower,  in  another  it  became  at  once  wider  and 
deeper.  Putting  aside  his  friends  on  the  Continent,  his 
letters  up  till  1840  were  addressed  to  immediate  relatives 
or  personal  friends.  The  circle,  it  is  true,  was  not  only  a 
large  but  a  somewhat  remarkable  one.  It  may  be  doubted 
whether,  in  the  range  of  Scottish  domestic  life,  there  ever 
was,  before  or  since,  in  the  same  class  of  society,  so  many 
fitted  by  culture  to  appreciate,  and  by  deep  religious  faith  to 
sympathise  with  him,  as  Mr.  Erskine  found  within  the  circle 
of  his  own  cousinhood.  Nor  did  he  ever  afterwards  form 
two  stronger  or  more  congenial  friendships  than  those  which 
bound  him  to  Scott  and  Campbell.  From  the  time,  how- 
ever, that  he  may  be  said  to  have  relinquished  public  life, 
a  far  more  varied  sphere  of  intercourse  and  correspondence 
opened  up  to  him,  especially  with  some  remarkable  men 
of  the  highest  literary  ability,  and  with  ideas  and  senti- 
ments congenial  with  his  own.  This  will  growingly  appear 
in  the  letters  which  follow. 

112.    TO   JAMES    MACKENZIE,  ESQ. 

Cadker,  Glasgow,  March  7,  1840. 
My  dear  Signore, —  .  .  .  I  am  glad  that  you  like  Vinet. 
You  may  keep  him  for  six  months  if  you  like.     He  is  a  most 


246  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1840. 

amiable,  excellent,  tolerant  man,  who  understands  the  differ- 
ence between  the  spirit  and  the  letter.  He  has  written  several 
other  things ;  an  essay  Sur  la  Liberte  des  Cultes ;  Essais 
de  Philosophie  Morale  et  de  Morale  Religieuse,  which  last 
I  shall  also  lend  you.  It  contains  reviews  by  him  of 
different  works  of  modern  French  literature,  very  good  and 
original.  He  is  a  thinker,  and  a  Christian  thinker.  He  is 
the  Professor  of  Th6ologie  Dogmatique  at  Lausanne,  and 
his  large  unsectarian  spirit  is  a  great  blessing  to  the  place. 
He  is  acknowledged  as  a  man  of  real  piety  by  the  highest 
Calvinists,  and  yet  he  is  no  Calvinist.  .  .  . — Yours  ever 
affectionately,  T.  Erskine. 

113.    TO  MADAME  FOREL. 

Linlathen,  October  14,  1840. 
Dear  Friend, — It  was  a  real  enjoyment  to  me  to  receive 
a  letter  from  you,  and  to  be  enabled  by  it  to  think  and  feel 
along  with  my  much  esteemed  friends  at  Lausanne.  I  am 
very  undeserving  of  the  kind  and  flattering  things  which 
you  say  a  mon  Jgard,  but  I  gave  a  grateful  and  cordial 
welcome  to  the  love  which  dictates  them.  I  am  happy  to 
think  of  your  husband  and  yourself,  and  of  any  of  your 
friends,  as  maintaining  the  conflict,  to  which  we  are  called 
in  this  world — the  conflict  of  the  invisible  against  the 
visible,  of  the  spirit  against  the  flesh,  of  eternity  against 
time.  It  is  a  sore  conflict,  and  much  we  need  all  the 
warning  and  encouragement  that  the  experience  of  others, 
our  fellow-soldiers,  can  give  us.  You  are  in  the  midst  of 
dissensions,  and  we  are  in  the  midst  of  dissensions,  and 
there  is  amongst  us  such  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the 
way  of  arriving  at  righteousness,  that  we  almost  forget  that 
it  is  the  same  end  which  we  are  all  aiming  at ;  hence  much 
uncharitableness.  There  is  a  party  in  the  Church  of 
England  at  present  who  are  so  impressed  with  the  evil  of 


XT.  52.  MADAME  FOREL.  247 

setting  up  the  right  of  private  judgment  too  much  that 
they  would  forbid  private  judgment  altogether,  and  place 
religion  in  submission  and  obedience  merely.  This  is  good, 
as  it  is  necessary,  for  the  infancy  of  the  Christian  life,  as  it 
is  also  for  the  infancy  of  human  life,  but  surely  there  is 
something  higher  than  this  intended  for  us  by  Him  who 
said,  "  I  call  you  no  more  servants,  but  friends,  for  the 
servant  knoweth  not  what  his  lord  doeth,  whereas  all  things 
that  I  have  heard  of  my  Father  I  have  made  known  unto 
you."  Yet  these  men  are  pious  men,  and  some  of  them  are 
highly  gifted  intellectually.  If  the  Quarterly  Review  comes 
to  Lausanne,  you  will  find  a  curious  and  interesting  article 
in  the  last  number,  written  by  one  of  that  party,  as  a 
criticism  on  Carlyle's  works.  There  are  many  true  things 
in  the  article,  but  that  exaggerated  idea  of  blind  submission, 
without  discerning  the  Tightness  of  the  thing  submitted  to,  is 
so  much  pressed  that  it  injures  the  effect  even  of  what  is  true. 
I  am  entirely  of  your  opinion  as  to  Madame  Guyon, 
and  to  that  class  of  religious  writers.  I  am  formed  to  be 
a  receiver  and  a  continual  receiver,  but  at  the  same  time  I 
must  judge  and  choose  what  I  ought  to  receive.  A  simple 
passivity  must  end  in  pantheism,  as  you  rightly  observe. 
The  great  lesson  to  be  learned  in  life  is  to  make  the  right 
choice — to  refuse  the  evil  and  to  choose  the  good,  to 
distinguish  between  them  and  to  prefer  the  one  to  the  other. 
You  are  pleased  when  you  see  in  your  child  just  rising  out 
of  infancy  a  readiness  to  obey  you  in  everything,  but  you 
would  be  sorry  if  you  saw  that  as  he  grew  older,  he  con- 
tinued still  entirely  dependent  on  you  for  direction,  and 
did  not  himself  learn  to  know  the  right  way  through  the 
wilderness  of  life.  The  child  does  not  give  to  the  parent 
the  highest  honour  when  he  merely  gives  him  submission, 
and  does  not  perceive  the  Tightness  and  wisdom  and  love 
of  the  precept  to  which  he  submits. 


248  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1840. 

Dear  friend,  I  wish  I  were  sitting  beside  you,  that  I 
might  make  sure  of  your  not  misunderstanding  me, 
for  I  feel  that  on  this  subject  there  is  great  risk  of 
misunderstanding  one  another;  it  is  so  difficult  in  words, 
and  even  in  thought  and  feeling,  to  preserve  the  true 
equilibrium.  When  we  see  one  part  of  a  truth  generally 
overlooked,  we  are  disposed  to  become  its  champions, 
and  like  the  old  knights,  to  claim  from  all  the  world 
the  acknowledgment  that  it  is  best  and  fairest.  The 
Wesleyans  have  been  generated  by  Calvinism,  of  which 
they  are  the  supplement.  Calvinism,  by  what  I  cannot  but 
think  a  very  absurd  misconception  of  the  meaning  of  the 
7th  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  teaches  that  a 
man  may  be  in  a  safe  state,  and  may  be  a  true  believer, 
whilst  he  continues  carnal,  and  sold  under  sin,  according  to 
the  14th  verse.  The  Wesleyans,  seeing  the  evil  of  this, 
have  set  up  their  doctrine  of  perfection,  which  is  certainly 
true  in  the  main,  for  a  man  may  hold  fast  the  grace  of  God, 
and  that  grace  is  sufficient  to  keep  him  from  evil,  but  their 
statements  of  it  are  not  always  wise  or  right.  Again, 
Calvinism  teaches  that  if  a  man  is  once  in  Christ,  he  will 
certainly  continue  so  to  the  end.  The  Wesleyans  see  the 
evil  of  this,  and  its  inconsistency  with  many  of  the  warnings 
of  the  Bible,  and  so  they  teach  that  a  man  may  fall  from  a 
state  of  salvation  and  recover  it  again  half-a-dozen  times  in 
the  course  of  an  hour,  giving  that  place  to  temporary 
movable  feelings  which  belongs  properly  to  principles,  or 
habits  founded  on  principles,  and  elevating  affections  above 
the  sense  of  duty,  which  nevertheless  is  the  true  basis  and 
substratum  of  everything  that  is  really  good  and  high  in 
morals  or  religion.  I  believe  that  the  Wesleyans  have  done 
much  good  in  England,  and  in  the  English  colonies,  as 
missionaries;  but  the  individuals  of  them  whom  I  have 


Mr.  52.  MADAME  FOR  EL.  249 


known  seem  to  me  not  fully  to  apprehend  that  the  way  of 
the  cross  is  not  only  the  way  in  which  Jesus  walked  for 
us,  but  also  the  only  way  in  which  we  can  walk  with  Him, 
and  that  He  was  a  man  of  sorrows,  not  that  we  might  be 
exempt  from  sorrows,  but  that  we  might  suffer  with 
Him  and  sorrow  with  Him,  in  the  same  spirit  and  to  the 
same  result. 

As  Wesleyanism  rose  out  of  Calvinism,  so  Quakerism  rose 
out  of  Puritanism.  The  doctrinal  creed  of  the  Puritans 
appeared  to  George  Fox,  the  apostle  of  Quakerism,  to 
smother  the  spirit  under  the  letter ;  against  this  he  pro- 
tested, and  in  his  protest  he  threw  away  forms  and  letters 
altogether,  making  religion  to  consist  in  the  simple  relation 
of  each  individual  soul  with  God,  independent  of  positive 
facts,  including  truths  revealed  by  God  in  any  other  way 
than  that  of  the  individual  conscience.  I  can  understand 
in  the  same  way  that  Madame  Guyon,  and  the  race  of 
mystics  that  have  risen  up  in  the  bosom  of  Popery,  have 
been  generated  by  the  over-working  and  outside-working 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  system,  and  they  teach  over-passivity 
in  opposition  to  over-activity.  Thus  man  oscillates.  What 
a  comfort  it  is  to  know  that  God  really  desires  the  good  of 
every  soul  that  He  hath  made,  and  that  He  really  guides 
every  soul  that  waits  upon  Him  in  humility  and  sincerity, 
notwithstanding  its  imperfect  or  fallacious  theories.  Let 
us  not  make  haste,  but  let  us  abide  in  Jesus,  desiring  to  be 
educated  by  God,  so  that  we  may  not  only  wish  to  walk  in 
the  way  of  righteousness,  but  that  we  may  also  discern 
wherein  righteousness  consists,  and  patiently  and  lovingly 
walk  in  it. 

I  am  very  grateful  for  M.  Vinet's  letter,  and  when  I 
think  that  I  have  anything  to  say  to  him,  which  is  worth 
telling  him,  I  shall  write  to  him.     I  feel  most  deeply  for 


250  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1840. 

him  in  his  present  circumstances,  and  I  remember  him 
before  God,  asking  help  for  him  according  to  his  need.  I 
love  them  both  most  affectionately,  and  I  believe  that  he 
seeks  not  his  own  glory,  but  the  will  of  God,  which  gives 
me  confidence  that  he  will  be  guided  in  that  wisdom 
which  is  from  above.  I  am  very  anxious  to  see  his  book. 
I  seldom  meet  with  any  striking  thought  without  thinking 
of  him,  and  wishing  to  convey  it  to  him.  I  have  just  now 
a  sentence  before  me  which  I  shall  transcribe  for  him  : 
"  The  will  to  the  deed,  the  inward  principle  to  the  outward 
act,  is  as  the  kernel  to  the  shell ;  but  yet,  in  the  first  place, 
the  shell  is  necessary  for  the  kernel,  and  that  by  which  it 
is  commonly  known ;  and  in  the  next  place,  as  the  shell 
comes  first,  and  the  kernel  grows  gradually  and  hardens 
within  it,  so  is  it  with  the  moral  principle  in  man. 
Legality  precedes  morality  in  every  individual,  even  as  the 
Jewish  dispensation  preceded  the  Christian  in  the  educa- 
tion of  the  world  at  large."  .  .  . — Yours  most  affection- 
ately, T.  Erskine. 

114.    TO  MRS.  BURNETT. 

Linxathen,  Feb.  2,  1841. 

.  .  .  What  a  wonderful  scene  this  world  is,  considered 

as  a  school  in  which  God  is  educating  immortal  beings  for 

eternity !     Look  to  Africa,  to  Asia,  to  America,  even  to 

Europe,  even  to  England,  London,  Manchester,  Glasgow, 

j  Dundee,  as  schools  for  eternity !     It  is  a  great  mystery. 

I  The  God  of  infinite  love,  who  so  loved  every  individual 

man  as  to  give  His  only-begotten  Son  to  die  for  him  and 

to  be  his  living  Head,  who  has  all  wisdom  and  all  power, 

He    looks    on    this    strange    sight    and    lets    it    proceed. 

Assuredly  then  there    is  a  purpose   of  wise  love   in    all 

this   which    will    yet   be    manifested.     That  is    the  blue 

sky  beyond  the  clouds.      We  must  by  faith   pierce    the 


tet.  52.  REV.  J.  M.   CAMPBELL.  251 

cloud,  and  strengthen  our  hearts  by  looking  to  the  end  of 
the  Lord  ;  or,  as  Gambold  says, 

"Thus  all  the  sequel  is  well  weighed. 
I  cast  myself  upon  Thine  aid, 
A  sea  where  none  can  sink." 

"  He  hath  shut  in  all  under  unbelief,  that  He  might  have 
mercy  on  all."  No  wonder  that  such  an  idea  drew  from 
the  apostle  the  exclamation  which  follows,  "  0  the  depth," 
etc.  .  .  . 

We  have  had  a  great  many  deaths  lately  amongst  our 
friends.  One  of  my  first  continental  friends,  a  Genevese 
lady,  died  of  a  paralytic  stroke  lately.1  She  was  on  her 
knees  praying  before  going  to  bed,  and  she  was  one  who 
prayed  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  It  was  a  sweet  way  of 
dying.  .  .  . — Yours  affectionately, 

T.  Erskine. 

115.    TO  THE  REV.  J.  McLEOD  CAMPBELL. 

Linlathen,  Feb.  27,  1841. 

Beloved  Friend, — I  cannot  tell  you  how  grateful  to 
my  heart  your  love  is,  and  all  the  expressions  of  it.  I  like 
ties  of  kindness — outward  and  visible  signs  of  the  unseen 
spirit  of  love — special  motives  for  prayer,  binding  souls 
together  in  the  spirit. 

My  dear  brother,  I  value  your  love  much,  both  as  your 
love  and  as  God's  love.  I  have  confidence  in  the  truth 
and  stability  of  your  love,  and  all  here  are  of  one  mind  i» 
the  appreciation  of  you  and  your  affection. 

Give  my  affectionate  love  to  your  dear  Avife.  We  do 
indeed  not  find  it  difficult  to  rejoice  with  her  and  you  on 
this  event.2     May  the  good  Father  bless  the  parents  and 

1  Madame  Cramer. 

2  The  birth  of  a  son  called  Thomas  Erskine.  See  "Memorials  of 
J.  M'Leod  Campbell,  D.D.,"  vol.  i.  p.  159. 


LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


the  children,  and  make  your  Thomas  Erskine  a  better 
man  and  a  wiser  than  him  after  whom  he  is  named. 
I  should  be  sorry  to  see  myself  reproduced  entire  in  any 
human  being ;  and  if  I  thought  that  the  name  could  effect 
such  a  thing,  I  should  positively  object  to  its  being  imposed 
on  the  young  immortal;  but  I  have  the  trust  that  the 
names  into  which  he  is  to  be  baptized,  is  the  name  which 
will  be  the  mould  of  his  character  and  the  fountain  of  his 
spiritual  life — the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son, 
and  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  .  . — Yours  ever  most  affectionately, 

T.  Erskine. 

116.    TO  THOMAS  CARLYLE,  ESQ. 

Linlathen,  March  23,  1841. 

Dear  Mr.  Carlyle, — Your  kindly  thoughts  are  highly 
valued,  and  your  expression  of  them  always  most  acceptable. 

I  thank  you  for  your  sympathy  in  the  matter  of  my 
eyes,  which  I  should  not  feel  so  heavy  an  affliction  as  I  do, 
were  I  able  to  hold  that  converse  with  my  own  thoughts 
for  which  you  give  me  credit.  I  believe  that  it  is  to  teach 
me  that  lesson  that  my  present  circumstances  have  been 
allotted  to  me ;  but  I  am  a  slow  scholar,  most  apt  to  fall 
into  some  form  or  other  of  castle-building,  the  resort  and 
the  nourishment  of  an  indolent  mind.  I  think  of  that 
word  of  Jesus  Christ,  "I  have  finished  the  work  which 
thou  gavest  me  to  do ;  and  now,  0  Father,  glorify  thy 
Son,"  etc.,  and  am  compelled  to  conclude  that  my  life  is 
no  following  of  His  life. 

Proceed  with  your  Puritans,  it  is  the  work  given  you  to 
do.  Blessed  are  they  who  see  a  work  set  before  them,  and 
are  conscious  of  a  capacity  to  do  it.  It  is  a  great  under- 
taking to  lift  them  out  of  the  rubbish ;  if  you  love  them 
well  enough  you  will  find  out  their  mystery  of  life.  Why 
do  you  love  them  ?     If  you  could  explain  to  yourself  and 


/ET.  52.  THOMAS  CARLYLE.  253 

to  others  that  why,  the  business  would  be  well  advanced, 
for  it  is  no  dead  thing  that  you  love.  Of  course  you  know 
Baxter's  Life  by  himself.  One  feels  provoked  that  he  does 
not  tell  us  more  of  the  things  which  he  saw  and  touched 
every  day,  especially  about  Cromwell  himself.  It  is  a 
curious  thing  that  he  says  about  "  his  natural  hilarity 
being  such  as  other  men  have  only  when  they  have  taken 
a  cup  too  much,"  He  says  also,  what  seems  opposed  to 
other  testimony,  that  he  "  was  of  excellent  parts  for 
affection  and  oratory."  He  was  one  of  the  Jotuns,  or 
what  do  you  call  the  Norse  Titans  1 

When  you  make  your  escape  from  London,  pray  come 
down,  you  and  dear  Mrs.  Carlyle,  by  a  Dundee  steamer — 
they  are  the  best — and  come  here  and  inquire  after 
mountains  and  ocean  places,  which  can  make  the  mind 
free,  if  such  places  there  are.  In  this  neighbourhood  the 
industrial  Jotun  has  blown  his  poisonous  breath  upon 
everything.  We  have  a  stream  near  the  house,  which  I 
remember  clear  and  sweet,  and  full  of  active  joyful  life  ; 
now  it  is  like  the  sentina  of  an  apothecary's  or  chemist's 
establishment,  foaming  with  unhealthy  artificial  froth,  and 
reeking  forth  evil  smells,  and  substituting  ill-omened  rats 
for  the  gay  mottled  par;  and  tall  chimneys  vomit  out 
pestiferous  smoke.  Enfin,  this  is  to  be  explained  and 
received  on  the  same  principle  as  the  failure  of  eyesight. 

We  have  a  sea  near  us,  the  Firth  of  Tay,  along  which 
run  for  many  miles  delicious  links,  of  sweet  sward  and 
most  fantastical  miniatures  of  hills  and  valleys,  through 
which  I  used  to  ride  and  walk,  holding  intercourse  with 
nature  as  best  I  might ;  but  the  Jotun  has  practised  a 
railroad  through  the  heart  of  it,  which  has  plucked  out 
the  heart  of  its  mystery.  Nevertheless  there  are  still 
trees  and  fields  here,  which  in  the  appropriate  season 
become  green  and  tell  their  wondrous  tale,  as  others  of 


254  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1841. 

their  kind  do  elsewhere,  and  we  have  the  blue  vault  and 
the  high  stars,  and  liberty  of  access  to  the  Highest, 
debarred  only  by  our  own  evil. 

I  am  very  sorry  that  Mrs.  C.  is  invalided.  I  feel  grati- 
tude and  affection  to  you  both  for  your  kindness  to  me. 

I  have  got  your  Lectures,  and  my  sister  Mrs.  Paterson 
kindly  reads  to  me,  so  I  have  the  use  of  eyes,  though  not 
my  own.  There  are  advantages  as  well  as  disadvantages 
in  this  way  of  it.  Did  you  hear  any  of  Scott's  Political 
Lectures  I1  I  think  they  must  have  been  very  good  ;  words 
in  them  for  the  masses  of  Manchester  and  Glasgow,  as  well 
as  for  the  rulers. — Yours  affectionately,        T.  Erskine. 

117.    TO  MADAME  FOREL. 

London,  June  28,  1841. 
Dear  Friend, — I  have  received  your  packet,  and  return 
you  many  thanks.  I  have  also  received  Vinet's  Nouveaux 
Discourse  into  which  I  have  looked  a  little  with  much 
pleasure ;  but  as  I  am  at  present  alone,  separated  from 
those  of  my  family  to  whom  I  am  obliged  to  be  indebted 
for  much  of  my  knowledge  of  books,  in  consequence  of  the 
weakness  of  my  own  eyes,  I  have  not  made  much  progress 
in  them  yet.  I  was  very  much  struck  by  the  second, 
"  Le  mediant  et  le  jour  de  la  calamite."  The  certainty, 
the  inevitable,  infallible  certainty,  of  the  connection 
between  moral  good  and  happiness — moral  evil  and 
misery — is  an  immense  doctrine,  full  of  important  results. 
The  gospel  does  not  weaken  this  doctrine ;  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ  does  not  deliver  us  from  this  eternal  law,  that 
"  verily  it  must  be  ill  with  the  wicked,"  but  teaches  us  to 
approve   and    love   that  law,   even  in  its  application  to 

1  On  Chartism  and  Socialism.     See  Discourses  by  Alexander  J.  Scott, 
pp.  130,  160. 

2  "  Nouveaux  Discours  sur  quelques  sujets  religieux."    Paris,  1841. 


jet.  52.  MADAME  DE  STAEL.  255 

ourselves,  and  carries  us  safe  through  it,  to  the  other  side, 
where  its  fruits  grow.  Let  us  he  patient,  dear  friend,  and 
trust  in  the  Lord  with  all  our  heart,  for  in  due  time  we 
shall  reap,  if  we  faint  not.  I  am  very  sorry  that  your 
eyes  are  troubling  you ;  I  have  nevertheless  sent  you  a 
book,  a  work  of  my  own,  which  I  have  spoken  to  you 
about,  and  from  which  that  extract  about  "  accepting  our 
punishment"  is  taken — The  Brazen  Serpent — which  you 
may  let  dear  Mine.  Viuet  see.  I  have  also  sent  a  book 
for  M.  Vinet,  called  "  The  Kingdom  of  Christ,"  which  I 
am  sure  he  will  read  with  interest,  although  he  will 
disagree  much  and  often  with  it.  The  writer  is  a  friend 
of  mine,  whom  I  value  highly,  as  a  man  of  great  worth 
and  great  intellectual  power.1  .  .  .  Alas !  dear  and 
honoured  Madame  Necker:2  "The  path  of  the  just  is  as 
the  shining  light,  which  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the 
perfect  day."  .  .  . — Yours  ever  affectionately, 

T.  Erskine. 

118.   TO  MADAME  DE  STAEL. 

Sept.  8,  1841. 
We  must  be  in  earnest  in  the  business  of  crucifying  the 
flesh.     "We  must  die  with  Jesus.     His   death- pang  must 
pass  through  us,  that  we  may  truly  partake  of  His  life.3 
We  must  not  be  too  tender  of  our  own  feelings.  .  .  . 

Our  wisdom  cannot  judge  God's.  Our  wisdom  is  to 
acknowledge  God's  wisdom,  and  to  wait  on  Him  that  He 
would  reveal  it  to  us.     What  you   say  of   your  mother 

1  F.  D.  Maurice.  2  Authoress  of  ".17 Education  Progressive." 

3  "A  ccepting  our  punishment  is  just  being  of  one  mind  with  God,  in  hating 
and  condemning  sin,  and  longing  for  its  destruction.  It  is  submitting 
ourselves  to  the  process  of  its  destruction,  and  setting  our  seals  to  the 
righteousness  of  God  in  the  process.  It  is  the  death-pang  of  the  crucified 
Head  thrilling  through  the  member  and  accomplishing  in  it  what  it  did  in 
the  Head  "—The  Brazen  Serpent,  2d  edition,  p.  48. 


250  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1841. 

praying  for  me  on  the  1st  June  is  very  striking  to  me. 
I  do  not  recollect  anything  in  particular  to  mark  that  day, 
hut  I  learn  this  from  her  prayer,  that  on  that  day,  as  on 
every  day,  most  important  concerns  for  my  soul  were 
transacted  without  my  being  aware  of  their  importance. 
Every  negligence  in  the  inner  history  of  my  thoughts  and 
desires,  every  conflict  between  the  Spirit  of  God  and  the 
spirit  of  self-indulgence  within  me,  every  inward  con- 
fessing of  Christ  as  the  Lord  of  my  being,  though  bearing 
no  outward  sign,  is,  I  am  well  assured,  of  unspeakable 
importance  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  fitted  to  call  forth 
the  intense  prayers  of  all  those  in  whose  hearts  the  Spirit 
of  God  is  acting  as  an  intercessor  for  others.  And  it  is  a 
painful  indication  of  the  little  sense  that  I  have  of  the 
mind  of  the  Spirit  concerning  me,  that  such  prayers  can 
be  made  for  me  by  others,  whilst  I  remain  myself  so  cold 
and  apathetic.  I  had  another  friend,  also  now  dead,  who 
used  to  tell  me  that  she  at  particular  times  felt  constrained 
to  pray  for  me,  as  if  I  were  in  great  spiritual  danger.  She 
was  one  who  lived  very  near  God,  and  prayed  much,  and 
I  used  to  wonder  that  I  was  not  able  to  connect  any  felt 
state  of  difficulty  in  my  own  mind  with  those  calls  to 
prayer  in  my  behalf  which  she  experienced.  At  last  I 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  these  prayers  did  not  mark 
any  particular  difficulty  in  my  path,  but  only  that  the 
general  and  continual  difficulty  of  every  day  was  then 
specially  made  known  to  her  soul,  that  I  might,  by 
hearing  of  it,  be  stirred  up  to  a  greater  activity  of  prayer 
and  vigilance,  seeing  how  critical  my  condition  appeared 
to  the  loving  Spirit  of  God. 

119.    TO  THOMAS  CARLYLE,  ESQ. 

Lixlathen,  Nov.  24,  1S41. 
...  I  HOPE  you  are  proceeding  with  Oliver's  life.    He  was 


,et.  53.  CRAMER  MALLET. 


a  grand  fellow,  and  full  of  good  English  domestic  life,  I  am 
persuaded,  of  which  no  man  could  require  a  better  proof 
than  his  calling  up  one  of  the  maids  of  his  house,  whom  he 
knew  to  be  a  Quaker,  and  telling  her  that  George  Fox  was 
in  town,  for  that  he  had  met  him  that  day.  His  appoint- 
ment of  Hale,  too,  is  good.  But  it  is  very  difficult  to 
collect  specimens  of  the  primary  formation  of  such  a  man. 
It  would  be  pleasant  to  light  on  an  early  or  at  all  events 
an  inner  collection  of  letters — an  interior  nota  Falerni — to 
show  what  he  was  before  he  made  the  move,  or  what  he 
really  was  after  it.  There  have  been  a  good  many  rather 
considerable  breakers  of  formulas ;  do  you  know  any  good 
makers  of  them  1  or  do  they  only  grow  themselves  unmade  1 
I  was  struck  by  a  dictum  of  Coleridge  the  other  day,  in  his 
IM&rary  Remains?-  on  this  subject ;  he  remarks  that  the  shell 
comes  before  the  kernel,  and  is  the  prepared  receptacle  for 
it,  to  nourish  and  protect  it,  in  its  germination.  To  get 
good  shells  is  still  more  important,  as  it  is  much  more 
difficult,  than  to  break  bad  ones.  .  .  .  Believe  me  to  be, 
with  sincere  wishes  for  your  welfare,  and  with  much  grati- 
tude for  your  kindness,  yours.  T.  Erskine. 

120.  TO  M.  CRAMER  .MALLET. 

Linlathen,  Feb.  25,  1S42. 

Mon  cher  Monsieur, — Je  vais  vous  6crire  en  Anglais 
afin  que  je  puisse  m'entretenir  avec  vous  plus  a  mon  aise, 
et  parceque  je  sais  bien  que  Madame  ou  uve  de  ces  dames 
aura  la  bonte  d'etre  mon  interprete.   .   .  . 

The  distress  and  poverty  in  all  our  manufacturing  dis- 
tricts are  appalling.  As  yet,  the  sufferers  have  shown 
great  patience,  but  the  question  of  the  Corn  Laws  is  a 
very  agitating  question  at  such  a  time,  especially  as  there 
is  no  want  of  public  haranguers  who  represent  to  the 
1  Vol.  i.  p.  333. 


258  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1842. 

people  that  all  their  present  distress  arises  out  of  the  Corn 
Laws,  and  that  these  laws  are  made  by  the  landowners 
merely  for  their  own  interest.  It  is  a  large  subject  and 
an  intricate  one,  and  one  which  is  not  to  be  decided  without 
taking  into  consideration  a  great  many  circumstances  which 
are  generally  overlooked  by  those  who  look  at  us  from  a 
distance. 

Your  account  of  your  own  revolution  is  very  interesting 
and  instructive.  This  is  the  age  of  revolutions ;  we  may 
expect  them  everywhere.  The  intelligence,  or  rather  the 
intellectual  activity,  of  the  lower  classes  of  society  has  made 
a  prodigious  advance  within  the  last  fifty  years ;  and  intel- 
ligence is  power;  but  the  moral  culture  and  the  religious 
culture  has  not  kept  pace  with  the  intellectual  activity; 
and  without  a  right  state  of  morals  power  cannot  be  exer- 
cised well.  Here  lies  the  general  difficulty.  Men  insist  on 
judging  of  everything,  though  they  have  neither  sufficient 
extent  of  knowledge  nor  sufficient  unselfishness  to  judge 
aright.  I  believe  that  we  are  near  some  great  catastrophe ; 
there  is  no  reverence  left  for  anything  which  has  been  con- 
sidered venerable  by  our  fathers,  and  love,  la  chariU,  the 
only  true  bond  for  uniting  men,  either  as  families  or 
nations,  is  fast  disappearing,  and  no  bond  is  left  but 
selfishness,  or  sense  of  common  interest,  which  cannot 
stand ;  for  men's  interests,  or  their  views  of  their  interests, 
will  be  continually  opposing  them  to  each  other. 

Farewell,  dear  friends.  I  think  of  you  all  with  much 
love,  as  my  brothers  and  sisters.  T.  Erskine. 

121.    TO  MRS.  BURNETT. 

2  Gloucester  Place,  New  Road,  London, 
June  27,  1842. 
Dear  Mrs.  Burnett, —  ...  I  was  yesterday  at  Wool- 
wich   and    heard    Mr.    Scott.   .   .  .    He    preached    on    the 


MT.  53.  MA'S.  MA  UR1CE.  259 

words,  "  If  ye  be  led  of  the  Spirit  ye  are  not  under  the 
?aw."  He  showed  how  little  men  seemed  even  to  aim 
at  being  in  the  Spirit ;  how  contented  they  were,  even 
those  who  seemed  religious,  with  doing  things,  not  in 
the  love  of  them,  but  because  they  were  commanded  by 
God  to  do  them,  and  how  they  carried  this  same  principle 
into  the  doctrines  which  they  held  as  their  creed,  for  they 
thus  held  them,  not  because  they  saw  their  truth  in  the 
light  of  the  Spirit,  but  because  they  conceived  that  this 
creed  was  prescribed  to  them  by  God.  He  desired  that  he 
might  not  be  misunderstood,  as  if  he  had  said  that  a  man 
was  to  do  nothing,  and  to  believe  nothing  but  what  he 
himself  loved  or  saAV ;  but  he  only  wished  men  to  consider 
that  so  long  as  they  were  doing  it  in  this  way  they  were 
doing  it  not  in  the  Spirit  but  under  the  law. 

When  a  man  is  not  led  by  the  Spirit  he  ought  to  be 
under  the  law.  It  is  his  next  best  state,  but  it  is  not  his 
Christian  calling.  I  feel  that  this  is  a  most  important  sub- 
ject, though  perhaps  so  shortly  stated  it  may  not  come  with 
much  conviction  to  your  mind.  I  scarcely  ever  met  with 
a  person  who  did  not  give  me  the  impression  that  he  held 
his  creed  under  the  law,  referring  to  particular  texts,  but 
not  to  a  Spirit,  apparently  not  even  seeing  the  desirableness 
of  it.  Sometimes  I  used  to  feel  this  even  with  your  loved 
and  venerated  father ;  at  the  same  time  there  was  no  man 
that  I  had  then  met  with  who  was  half  so  free,  or  with 
whom  I  felt  so  free  to  say  what  was  the  feeling  or  the  con- 
viction of  my  heart,  without  fear  of  being  charged  or  sus- 
pected of  heresy.   .  .  . — Ever  yours  affectionately, 

T.  Erskine. 

122.  TO  MRS.  MAURICE. 

2  Glo'ster  Place,  New  Eoad,  24th  July. 
Dear  Mrs.   Maurice, — I  have  taken   the   liberty  of 
sending  you  a  copy  of  Madame  Necker's  work  on  Educa- 


260  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1842. 

tion,  of  which  we  spoke  the  other  day.  It  is  a  pleasure  to 
me  to  look  back  upon  the  intellectual  and  sociable  and 
eminently  earnest  old  lady.  She  had  been  for  many  years 
in  a  great  measure  withdrawn  from  society  by  her  deafness, 
and  a  certain  desolateness  of  feeling  connected  partly  with 
that  infirmity,  and  still  more  by  a  sense  of  the  vanity  of 
temporal  things,  and  by  family  sorrows ;  the  chiefest  and 
sorest  of  which  was  the  death  of  a  much-loved  daughter, 
who,  I  think,  was  burned  to  death.  She  had  a  heart  for 
friendship,  and  delighted  in  intimate  communions,  one  of 
which  she  enjoyed  to  a  very  great  degree,  with  Madame  de 
Broglie,  the  daughter  of  her  old  friend  Madame  de  Stael, 
who,  after  the  death  of  her  own  mother,  and  increasingly 
after  the  death  of  Madame  Necker's  daughter,  became  a 
daughter  and  more  than  a  daughter  to  her.  The  chapter 
on  married  life,  in  the  third  volume,  is  very  much  indebted 
to  her  hand,  I  believe. 

My  acquaintance  with  this  old  lady,  and  my  pleasurable 
remembrance  of  it,  make  me  wish  to  introduce  her  to  you 
and  Mr.  Maurice.  I  hope  to  see  him  and  you  once  more 
before  I  leave  London,  which  I  propose  doing  next  week. 
— I  remain,  with  great  regard,  yours  most  truly, 

T.  Erskine. 


123.    TO  JAMES  MACKENZIE,  ESQ. 

Linlathen,  Sept.  5,  1S42. 
My  dearest  Friend, — It  is  a  grief  to  me  to  have  so 
little  to  do  with  one  whom  I  love  so  well.  I  have  often 
intended  to  write  to  you,  when  things  or  thoughts,  or  per- 
sons that  interested  me  came  in  my  way ;  but  indolence  or 
something  else  prevented  me,  and  left  me  the  mere  longing 
to  communicate  with  you.  I  spent  about  three  months 
this  spring  and  summer  in  London,  having  gone  up  primarily 


jet.  53.  JAMES  MACKENZIE.  261 

to  hear  Scott  lecture  on  his  old  subject,  the  mutual  relations 
of  religion  and  philosophy.  I  felt  an  increasing  value  fo- 
lds views  on  the  subject,  and  an  increasing  admiration  for 
his  talents  as  a  lecturer.  I  afterwards  heard  him  deliver 
two  lectures  on  Schism.1  He  began  by  showing  wherein 
true  unity  consists.  God  is  the  only  real  centre,  and  sepa- 
ration from  Him  the  only  real  schism.  Then  our  union 
to  Him  must  be  spiritual,  and  therefore  schism  cannot  con- 
sist in  a  difference  of  form,  as  unity  cannot  consist  in  a 
similarity  of  form.  These  lectures  were  taken  by  a  short- 
hand writer,  and  perhaps  you  have  seen  them,  through 
Miss  Paterson  or  some  other.  I  went  down  to  Woolwich 
pretty  often  to  hear  him  preach  on  Sundays,  always  witli 
great  satisfaction. 

Madame  de  Stael  came  over  when  I  was  in  London, 
which  was  a  great  pleasure  to  me.  I  have  gotten  from  her 
some  very  beautiful  productions  of  Mine,  de  Broglie's  pen, 
which  I  should  like  you  to  read,  but  of  Avhich  I  cannot  give 
copies.  One  is  an  account  of  Mrs.  Fry's  visit  to  Paris,  full 
of  living  spirit.  Madame  de  Stael  has  also  been  kind 
mough  to  give  me  a  most  striking  portrait  of  her  mother, 
which  I  should  like  you  to  see.  Surely  you  can  spare  a 
day  or  two,  now  when  the  Queen's  visit  has  necessarily 
thrown  all  loyal  subjects  idle,  so  that  they  may  be  at  least 
their  own  masters  as  much  as  the  turn-outs  at  Manchester. 
We  are  in  a  strange  state  nationally, — near  some  great 
explosion.  There  seems  to  be  no  law  nor  government.  If 
things  settle  down  of  themselves,  well  and  good,  but  there 
is  no  strong  hand  in  the  State  to  put  them  down.  Come 
over  before  the  break  comes,  that  we  may  have  a  little  quiet 
anticipation  of  the  joy  of  the  kingdom  which  cannot  be 
shaken. — With  best  regards  to  your  ladies,  I  ever  am,  yours 
most  affectionately,  T.  Erskine. 

1  See  Discourses  l>y  Alexander  J.  Scott,  pp.  230-280. 


262  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1842. 


Yi\.    TO  MISS  AXX  DUNDAS. 

LlNLATHKN,  Sept.  25,  1S42. 

My  dear  A  XX, — I  am  most  thankful  for  the  accounts 
which  you  have  received  of  the  circumstances  attending  the 
death  of  your  dearest  brother,  the  most  amiable  of  men.     I 
believe  that  his  ear  would  be  more  open  to  those  with 
whom  he  had  never  been  in  the  habit  of  discussing  and 
disputing  about  Christianity,  than  to  his  own  friends,  and 
therefore,  that  although  it  seems  to  us  sad  that  so  loving 
a  being  should  have  died  at  a  distance  from  his  kindred, 
yet  it  was  of  the  mercy  of  God.     There  certainly  flowed 
through  his  heart  a  deeper  stream  of  natural  love  than 
ever  I  saw  in  any  man,  and  who  can  doubt  that  that  stream 
is  yet  to  be  holy  water  in  the  kingdom  of  God  1     I  loved 
him  well,  and  yet  I  feel  as  if  I  had  not  made  enough  of  him 
when  I  had  him.     I  hope  now  to  profit  by  the  remembrance 
of  him,  especially  in  the  lesson  of  love — disinterested,  noble 
love.     Dearest  Willy, — I  feel  for  all  of  you  his  sisters  and 
bi  others,  and  desire  to  have  the  bond  between  us  strength- 
ened and  tightened,  and  not  weakened  by  this  event.     And 
I  hope  also,  my  dear  friends,  that  you  yourselves  may  profit 
in  this  same  way,  by  a  stroke  which  is  intended  by  Him 
who  inflicted  it  to  go  very  deep.     The  great  lesson  of  love 
is,  to  die  to  ones-self.     Christ's  love  is  always  shown  through 
death,  just  because  the  death  of  the  self  is  both  the  great 
expression  and  the  only  way  into  love.     We  cannot  love 
without  dying  to  self,  and  we  cannot  die  to  self  without 
love.     The  two  things  go  together  inseparably;  in  fact, 
they  are  opposite  faces  of  the  same  thing — and  that  thing 
is,  eternal  life.     I  hope  you  will  all  pray  much,  and  keep 
your  hearts  and  your  lips  in  humility  and  watchfulness, 
not  thinking  it  any  degradation  to  humble  yourselves  before 
each  other,  and  to  submit  one  to  another  in  the  fear  of 


iET.  53.  LORD  RUTHERFURD.  263 

God.  0  Ann,  the  time  past  may  suffice  us  all  to  have 
wrought  our  own  will,  which  is  iniquity ;  and  now  let  us 
begin  again  our  journey  and  our  life. 

I  am  thankful  to  have  seen  so  much  of  him  here,  so  that 
I  have  associated  him  with  many  places  in-doors  and  out-of- 
doors.  I  know  no  one  except  Davie  who  had  the  same 
delight  in  living  over  past  days,  and  recalling  past  friends  ; 
the  roots  of  his  heart  went  deep  into  our  common  nature, 
and  entwined  themselves  with  all  his  kind,  beginning  with 
his  relations.  It  flatters  our  personal  feelings — our  vanity 
— to  be  loved  for  our  own  personal  qualities,  but  it  is 
wholesome  to  know  that  we  are  loved  for  something  not 
personal,  but  belonging  to  us  as  members  of  one  family, 
of  one  race,  children  of  one  Father,  redeemed  by  one 
Saviour,  who  is  the  common  Head  of  all.  Dear  friends, 
Ann,  Mary,  Eliza,  Jemima — let  us  be  thus  minded,  and  if 
in  anything  we  be  otherwise  minded,  let  us  humbly  seek 
wisdom  and  strength  from  our  Head.  Farewell. — Yours 
ever  affectionately,  T.  Erskine. 

125.    TO  LOUD  RUTHERFURD. 

LlNLATHEN,  DUNDEE,    Oct.   7,    1S4'J. 

My  DEAR  Rutherfurd, — The  thought  of  having  you 
here  is  a  great  pleasure  to  me.  I  have  been  intending  t<  i 
write  to  you  a  letter  of  urgency  on  this  matter  for  some 
time  back,  and  the  circumstance  to  which  you  refer,  th<' 
death  of  that  most  amiable  and  most  affectionate  of  men,1 
increases  in  me  the  desire  of  getting  nearer  and  keeping 
nearer  to  old  friends.  The  last  time  that  I  was  in  your 
house  he  was  there  ;  he  came  separately.  I  was  first,  and 
John  announced  me  under  William's  name,  and  when  he 
came  John  announced  him  under  mine.  I  never  knew  a 
more  generous  heart,  and  I  have  scarcely  ever  known  any 

1  William  Dundas,  Esq. 


264  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1842. 

one  who  appreciated,  as  he  did,  the  value  of  human  kind- 
ness in  all  its  gradations.  Full  of  interest  intellectually, 
and  still  fuller  of  interest  morally,  we  shall  not  look  upon 
his  like  again.  Those  who  have  known  him  nearly  will 
not  easily  find  his  place  filled.  My  dear  friend,  the  world 
is  passing  away,  but  I  feel  that  nothing  which  is  truly 
worth  keeping  can  be  lost.  Faith  in  God  implies  faith  in 
this.  God  is  the  element  in  which  we  were  made  to 
live,  and  in  that  element  alone  can  we  breathe  freely. 
If  we  lived  there,  aDd  met  each  other  there,  we  should 
feel  that  there  is  in  truth  neither  death  nor  separation. 
The  value  of  any  true  disinterested  affection  is  immeasur- 
able by  any  earthly  measure.  .  .  . — Yours  ever,      T.  E. 

126.    TO  THE  REV.  J.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL. 

Linlathen,  October  15,  1842. 

Beloved  Brother, — We  rejoice  with  you,  and  trust 
that  you  will  be  taught  to  receive  in  this  new  gift  all  that 
your  Father  intends  for  you  in  it.  We  are  thankful  that 
dear  Mrs.  Campbell  is  now  so  well.  Are  we  not  in  His 
hands,  and  are  not  His  hands  a  Father's  hands  ] 

I  had  proposed  being  in  Glasgow  before  now,  and  even 
I  had  thought  of  going  to  Oban  and  seeing  your  dear  father,1 
and  refreshing  my  spirit  by  the  sight  of  heathery  mountains, 
which  I  have  not  looked  on  for  many  years.  But  man 
does  not  direct  his  own  way,  and  it  is  neither  on  this 
mountain  nor  in  Jerusalem  that  we  are  to  worship  the 
Father.  I  have  been  kept  at  home  by  the  feeling  that  at 
this  time  of  general  destitution  all  those  who  have  any 
property  or  any  capability  of  being  helpful  to  their  fellow- 
creatures  by  giving  them  employment  or  otherwise  should 
be  at  their  posts.   .  .  .  You  know  that  Mrs.  Paterson  natur- 

1  Dr.  Campbell  of  Kilninver,  who  died  in  his  sleep,  17th  January  1843. 
See  "  Memorials  of  Dr.  M'Leod  Campbell,"  vol.  i.  pp.  166,  172. 


MX.  54.  MR.  AND  MRS.  MAC  NAB  B.  205 

.illy  cares  for  you.  This  is  the  season  of  the  death  of  her 
Daidie,  and  she  lives  over  the  whole  history  as  the  marked 
days  pass  on,  marked  by  sorrow  and  yet  marked  by  love. 

With  kindest  love  from  all  here  to  you  all,  I  remain  ever 
yours,  T.  Erskine. 

127.    TO  MR.  AND  MRS.  MACNABB. 

6  Manor  Place,  Edinburgh,  Dec.  29,  1842. 

Very  dear  Friends, — .  .  .  I  have  been  surrounded  for 
the  last  six  months  with  starving  unemployed  labourers, 
and  I  have  been  giving  them  work,  to  an  amount  varying 
from  twenty  to  thirty  ;  which  being  just  so  much  above 
my  usual  expenditure,  I  find  myself  tolerably  drained  ;  and 
besides,  the  faces  of  those  whom  I  have  been  obliged  to 
refuse  employment  to  seem  to  me  to  reproach  me  for  every 
shilling  which  I  spend  out  of  my  own  neighbourhood.  You 
can  understand  this,  and  also  the  increased  demands  of  all 
the  local  charities — Infirmary,  Clothes  Societies,  etc. 

I  intend  to  go  Avest  to  see  your  beloved  brother1  before 
I  return  home.  It  seems  as  if  the  Church  of  Scotland  threw 
away  its  peace  when  it  threw  him  out  of  its  bosom.  What 
confusion  has  there  been  ever  since  !  "What  indeed  can 
unite  men  together,  but  the  sense  of  the  universal  love  of 
God,  which  that  Church  rejected  in  the  person  of  him  who 
was  honoured  to  preach  it  1 

.  .  .  Oh  what  a  blessed  secret  it  is  that  the  will  oi'  God 
is  the  law  of  man's  being — his  true  element,  out  of  which 
his  spirit  sickens  and  dies ;  and  that,  as  a  water-plant  can 
only  thrive  and  have  its  true  liberty  of  growth  in  the  water, 
so  man  has  his  true  liberty  only  in  the  will  of  God. — Yours 
(both)  most  affectionately,  T.  Erskine. 

1  Mrs.  Macnabb  was  a  sister  of  Dr.  MTJeod  Campbell.     Her  daughter 

married  the  son  of  Captain  Paterson,  who  took  his  uncle's  name  after  his 
decease,  and  is  now  the  proprietor  of  Linlatheit. 


■JUG  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1843. 


128.    TO  MRS.  BURNETT. 

Feb.  4,  1843. 
...  I  REJOICE  in  being  the  introducer  of  Vinet  to  any 
one  who  can  appreciate  him.  Don't  send  him  back ;  keep 
him  as  a  friend.  I  am  at  present  reading  a  very  interest- 
ing book  of  his,  recently  published,  "  Sur  la  Manifestation 
des  Convictions  Eeligieuses,"  which  leads  him  to  the  ques- 
tion, "Whether  there  ought  to  be  such  a  thing  as  an  Estab- 
lished Church,"  which  he  thinks  ought  to  be  answered  in 
the  negative.  I  have  not  yet  reached  that  part  of  the  book 
which  treats  that  subject,  but  what  I  have  read  is  admir- 
able. He  considers  the  purpose  of  God  in  the  institution 
of  society  as  a  spiritual  education  for  all  the  members  of 
it,  which  purpose  requires  the  frank  avowal  of  our  moral 
and  religious  convictions.  When  a  thing  is  said  or  done 
before  us  which  we  think  wrong,  he  says  that  we  feel  our 
own  spirits  injured  if  we  are  prevented  by  any  selfish 
motive  from  expressing  our  disapprobation,  and  we  at  the 
same  time  deprive  the  other  party  of  the  appeal  to  his 
conscience  which  such  an  expression  would  make.  He 
speaks  most  feelingly  of  the  heartless  state  of  society,  where 
everything  that  is  most  intimate  and  inward  to  the  con- 
science and  the  heart  is  studiously  suppressed,  and  where, 
consequently,  all  life  becomes  a  dead  conventionality. 

I  feel  very  much  for  your  two  depressed  and  melancholy 
neighbours.  There  is  one  suggestion  that  I  would  make 
to  you  in  relation  to  such  cases.  I  believe  that  the  expres- 
sion "  promises  of  the  Bible  "  is  often  misunderstood,  so  as  to 
convey  the  idea  that  the  love  of  God  to  man  is  conditional 
upon  his  catching  at  it  or  taking  hold  of  it.  To  us  is 
born  a  Saviour ;  that  is  no  promise,  it  is  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  first  promise.     When  a  child  is  born  in  a 


/m.  54.  MRS.  BURNETT.  267 

family  he  is  by  birth  the  brother  of  the  other  children  of 
the  family ;  they  have  nothing  to  do  in  order  to  make  him 
their  brother.  They  cannot  benefit  by  their  relation  unless 
they  receive  him  as  a  brother,  but  the  relation  itself  stands 
independent  of  them.  So  also  God  is  our  Father ;  and  in 
the  gift  has  been  manifested  the  actual  and  honest  pur- 
pose of  God  towards  us  and  all  men,  which  Ave  may 
frustrate  but  not  unmake.  ...  I  saw  your  youths,  but 
had  no  opportunity,  or,  alas  !  took  no  opportunity  of 
intimate  intercourse,  such  as  Vinet  speaks  of,  as  the  debt 
which  man  owes  to  man.  The  fear  of  doing  it  wrong 
weighs  with  me  now  much  more  than  it  used  to  do,  so  that 
I  recpiire  a  very  distinct  opening  to  induce  me  to  enter 
into  anything  like  religious  conversation.  If  everything 
which  we  thought  and  said  and  did  were,  as  it  ought  to  be, 
a  part  of  that  worship  which  ought  to  be  the  business  of 
life  (for  are  we  not  called  to  be  priests,  offering  up  continu- 
ally the  sacrifice  of  ourselves  1),  it  would  not  be  felt  to  be 
a  transition  when  we  spoke  directly  of  a  truth  which  was 
always  substantially  uppermost  in  the  mind.  I  know 
"Proverbial  Philosophy,"  and  like  many  things  in  it. 
Have  you  ever  read  any  of  Carlyle's  writings  ]  By  the  by, 
I  don't  remember  whether  I  spoke  to  you  of  him  when  I 
was  at  Kemnay.  His  History  of  the  French  Revolution  and 
his  miscellaneous  works  and  "  Sartor  Resartus  "  arc  all  very 
remarkable,  sometimes  startling.  I  love  the  man;  .  .  .  lie 
has  a  real  belief  in  the  invisible,  wlncli  in  these  rililruad 
and  steam-engine  clays  is  a  great  matter.  He  sees  and^ 
condemns  the  evil  and  baseness  of  living  in  the  lower  part 
of  our  nature  instead  of  living  in  the  higher.  He  is  full 
of  thoughts,  of  genius,  and  of  high  imagination. 


268  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1S43 

129.    TO  JAMES  MACKENZIE,  ESQ. 

Linlathen,  June  7,  1S43. 

Beloved  Mackenzie. — Are  you  really  coming  to  see 
us,  or  are  you  content,  and  Avilling  that  we  should  be  con- 
tent, with  speaking  of  it,  or  thinking  of  it  1  We  are  in 
the  middle  of  much,  and  may  expect  strange  results  soon, 
and  it  does  me  good  to  see  or  hear  a  temperate  man,  who 
believes  that  not  a  sparrow  falleth  to  the  ground  without 
our  Father.  I  doubt  not  that  a  certain  kind  and  degree  of 
good  may  arise  amongst  certain  persons  out  of  our  Scotch 
Kirk  separation — more  awakened  thought,  more  zeal, — but 
I  fear  also  more  judging,  more  spiritual  pride,  etc. — as  in 
the  much  and  perhaps  overlauded  days  of  the  Covenant 
and  the  hill-side. 

I  have  been  reading  Carlyle's  "  Past  and  Present,"  out  of 
which  two  elements  he  rears  a  horoscope  of  the  future.  He 
thinks  that  our  great  want  is  that  of  a  true  aristocracy — a 
strong  intelligent  domineering  aristocracy  in  its  two  forms 
of  governing  and  teaching.  We  need  men  who  will  "  mak' 
us  for  to  know  it,"  like  Sir  Harry,  and  who  will  also  "  mak' 
us  for  to  do  it."  These  are  our  great  desiderata,  and  he 
seems  to  hope  much  from  men  coming  to  be  sensible  that 
these  are  our  needs.  .  .  . — With  best  regards  to  your 
ladies,  yours  ever,  T.  ERSKINE. 

130.    TO  THOMAS  CARLYLE,  ESQ. 

LlNLATHEN,  NOV.   8,   1843. 

Dear  Mr.  Carlyle, — I  received  the  newspaper  ad- 
dressed by  your  hand  as  a  testimony  that  you  had  survived 
the  voyage  to  London  in  a  capacity,  so  far,  of  discharging 
the  duties  of  a  human  being.  Soon  after  you  left  us  a  friend 
of  mine,  who  would  like  to  know  you,  and  whom  you,  1 
think,  would  like  to  know,  James  Mackenzie,  son  of  the 


/er.  55.  MADAME  DE  STAHL.  269 

-  .Man  of  Feeling,"  came  here.  I  spoke  to  him  of  your 
purposed  History  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  on  which  he  recollected 
having  read  something  rather  characteristic  of  the  said 
Oliver  in  the  "  Coltness  Papers,"  published  lately  by  the 
Maitland  Club,  and  he  promised  when  he  went  home  to 
look  out  for  the  passage,  and  to  send  me  the  distinct 
reference,  that  I  might  transmit  it  to  you  to  be  used 
or  abused  according  to  your  own  judgment.  He  has 
j lot  only  sent  the  reference,  but  transcribed  the  passage, 
which  I  enclose  to  you.1  I  think  that  there  must  have 
been  a  considerable  self-evidencing  power  in  Oliver's 
religion  which  could  have  in  so  short  a  time  overcome  the 
prejudices  of  the  good  lady  of  Alertown.  His  interest  in 
the  ma'tger  young  man  and  his  recommendation  of  Mont- 
pellier  are  also  good  from  a  man  who  was  not  brought  up 
in  the  kingly  habit  of  buying  and  paying  people  by  court- 
eous words. 

Hitherto  our  winter  has  been  most  gentle.  Our  tier- 
are  at  this  moment  passing  through  a  beautiful  euthanasia, 
covering  the  ground  with  rich  mosaic.  We  expect  our 
sister  Mrs.  Stirling  home  to-day  from  her  long  absence  at 
a  house  of  mourning.  This  year  has  made  more  such 
houses  in  our  circle  of  friends  than  usual.  Give  my  best 
regards  to  Mrs.  Carlyle,  and  believe  me  to  be  yours  most 
truly,  T.  Erskine. 

131.    EXTRACTS  FROM  LETTERS  TO  MADAME  DE  STAEL. 

S<>pt.  20,  1843. 

.  .  .  You  mistake  my  character  very  much  if  you 
suppose  that  I  live  free  from  the  influence  of  visible  things. 
I  am  continually  called  to  act  amongst  them,  and  I  feel  it 
a  continual  and  a  most  painful  difficulty  to  determine  what 

1  "The  Coltness  Collections,"  pp.  9,  10,  quoted  in  "Oliver  Cromwell's 
Letters  ami  Speeches,"  vol.  ii.  p.  272. 


LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1S43. 


is  the  path  of  duty.  I  am  thus  often  in  a  state  of  indeci- 
sion, and  very  often  also  after  having  acted  I  condemn  the 
choice  I  had  made,  and  wish  I  had  acted  otherwise.  You 
understand  all  the  misery  connected  with  such  a  temper. 
Indeed,  it  often  makes  me  feel  weary  and  heavy  laden,  and 
it  also  makes  me  feel  how  very  little  I  realise  the  privilege 
of  having  Jesus  as  my  head  and  counsellor  and  guide, 
and  yet  I  know  that  He  is  indeed  all  these  to  me,  and  that 
I  shall  one  day  be  delivered  from  this  bondage  of  corrup- 
tion into  the  liberty  wherewith  the  Son  maketh  free.  The 
filial  spirit,  the  Son's  spirit,  is  the  free  spirit  which  enters 
into  the  Father's  mind,  and  knows  His  will,  and  finds  that 
will  its  food  and  joy.  The  time  is  short,  our  redemption 
draweth  nigh ;  let  us  fight  the  good  fight  of  faith,  and  take 
hold  of  eternal  life,  which  indeed  is  nothing  else  than  the 
loving  will  of  our  Father,  during  the  few  remaining  days 
of  our  pilgrimage  here. 

Christmas  1843. 
The  history  of  every  family  and  of  every  individual  is 
a  deep  tragedy  ;  for  sin  is  in  the  world,  and  there  is  no 
other  deliverance  from  sin  but  by  the  way  of  sorrow — 
sorrow  administered  by  love  and  received  in  love.  So 
that  this  life  is  given  up  to  the  development  of  the  sacred 
mystery  of  sorrow.  It  is  by  sorrow  that  God  calls  the 
prodigal  to  think  of  his  true  home,  and  it  is  by  sorrow 
that  He  perfects  His  saints. 

.  .  .  When  we  feel  pain  or  uneasiness  in  our  bodies,  we 
naturally  refer  it  to  some  internal  malady,  and  we  look  out 
for  a  remedy  which  may  remove  it.  But  when  we  feel 
pain  or  uneasiness  in  our  minds  we  are  disposed  to  refer  it, 
not  to  any  malady  in  the  mind  itself,  but  to  the  circum- 
stances in  which  we  are  placed,  and  thus  men  are  employed 
rather  in  attempting  to  change  their  circumstances  than  in 
endeavouring  to  cure  their  soids. 


jet.  55.  M.   GAUSS  EN.  271 

132.    TO  M.  CRAMER  MALLET. 

Linlathen,  Dec.  2G,  1S43. 
My  dear  Friend, —  .  .  .  All  through  Europe  the  lower \\ 
classes  of  the  people  have  learned  that  they  have  rights ;  ^ 
but  they  have  not  yet  learned  that  the  real  political  good 
of  man  is  to  be  well  governed,  and  not  self-governed.     They 
suppose  that  these  two  things  are  one.     The  gospel  that 
they  would  desire  is,  Every  man  his  own  king;  and  that 
other  gospel  which  is  next  neighbour  to  it,  Every  man  his 
own  God ;  whereas  the  true  gospel  is,  You  are  not  your 
own,  but  bought  with  a  price.     Submit  yourselves  to  this 
rule.     God's  promised  blessing  to  the  world  is  a  righteous 
king;   see  Isa.  xxxii.  and  Ps.  lxxii.  and  ex.  .  .  . — Yours 
most  truly,  T.  EitSKlNE. 

133.    TO  M.  GAUSSEN. 

Linlathen,  Dundee,  April  10,  1844. 
My  dear  Friend  and  Brother, — You  must  think  me 
very  unmindful  of  all  the  friendship  and  love  which  I  have 
received  at  your  hands,  if  you  judge  of  me  by  my  irregu- 
larity in  writing ;  but  I  hope  that  you  do  not  so  judge  of 
me.  I  hope  that  you  have  confidence  that  I  feel  bound  to 
you  by  a  tie  which  cannot  be  broken — the  eternal  bond  of 
God's  love.  I  often  go  back  in  memory  to  Satigny,  and 
collect  there  many  dear  ones  :  your  mother  and  sister  and 
daughter,  and  Perrot  and  the  young  missionaries  from  the 
Bale  seminary,  Miss  Greene,  and  others  who  have  gone 
hence.  I  see  your  venerable  little  church,  surrounded  with 
its  marronniers.  I  walk  in  your  garden,  and  look  at  your 
mountains  and  your  river.  Oh,  my  friend,  what  a  privilege 
it  is  to  know  Him  who  is  the  Maker  of  all  things  as  our 
Father  and  our  God,  who  calls  us  to  be  pai  takers  in  His 
own  nature,  by  receiving  Jesus  and   walking  in  Him.     I 


•272  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1844. 

hope  before  long  to  see  you  again,  but  the  state  of  our 
country  at  present  makes  me  feel  it  to  be  my  duty  to 
remain  at  my  own  post.  .  .  . — Yours  ever, 

T.  Er^kine. 

134.    TO  THE  REV.  A.  J.  SCOTT. 

Linlathen,  July  22,  1844. 
My  dear  Friend, — I  feel  it  indeed  a  great  disappoint- 
ment not  to  meet  you  at  this  time.  We  had  thought  that 
you  might  have  made  out  Perth,  and  then  taken  the 
steamer  down  the  river ;  but  I  am  quite  sensible  that  any 
over-exertion  might  be  attended  with  lamentable  conse- 
quences. That  you  have  yourself  felt  it  a  disappointment 
is  at  the  same  time  gratifying  and  grievous.  If  it  had  been 
possible,  I  wish  you  had  been  here  this  last  week,  during 
which  we  have  enjoyed  the  refreshing  babbling  of  that 
most  amiable  of  men,  James  Mackenzie.  I  who  weary  of 
myself  in  other  men's  company,  find  myself  always  renovated 
and  restored  by  his  free  natural  current,  which  runs  out  of 
him  like  a  child's  prattle.  If  he  has  the  same  effect  on 
you  that  he  has  on  me,  I  think  the  prospect  of  benefit — 
even  physical  benefit — from  his  society  might  almost  have 
outweighed  the  risk  of  a  journey  here.  His  tenderness  of 
nature,  his  exquisite  loving  sense  of  the  ludicrous,  his  besoin 
of  uttering  his  thoughts  and  feelings,  not  to  mention  the 
infinity  of  his  resources,  in  taste  and  intelligence  of  all  sorts, 
and  in  personal  anecdote,  give  a  charm  to  him  which  I 
never  saw  in  any  one  else.1  He  has  got  a  beautiful  day,  I 
am  glad  to  see,  for  his  voyage  home.  So  beautiful  indeed 
does  the  weather  look,  that  I  feel  tempted  to  take  a  run 

1  Yet  another  and  deeper  bond  united  these  two  friends.  In  1824  they 
met  at  Rome.  Mr.  Mackenzie,  then  a  thoughtless  youth,  was  prostrated 
by  fever,  and  lay  for  weeks  in  a  critical  condition.  Mr.  Erskine's 
attentions  were  incessant.  The  happy  fruit  of  them  was  an  entire  change 
in  Mr.  Mackenzie's  thoughts  and  sentiments,  and  a  perfect  spiritual  har- 
mony ever  after  between  them. 


JET.  55.  DR.    WYLIE.  273 

to  Stirlingshire,  where  the  beauty  of  the  weather  is  met 
half-way  by  the  beauty  of  the  country,  that  I  might  shake 
hands  with  you  again  in  our  own  country,  before  I  leave 
Britain  for  an  uncertain  time.  ...  T.  E. 

135.    TO  MRS.  MACHAR. 

Linlathen,  May  27,  1844. 
The  present  time  is  a  very  trying  one.  I  did  not  feel 
myself  called  on  to  take  any  part  in  this  movement  (the 
Disruption),  but  I  always  expressed  my  conviction  that  the 
movement  was  one  more  of  a  political  than  of  a  religious 
character.  God  is  Love.  I  feel  that  is  what  is  wanted 
universally.  I  desire  to  have  my  own  heart  ever  filled  out 
of  that  fountain  ;  it  is  a  love  which  rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity, 
but  rejoiceth  in  the  truth  ;  but  most  assuredly  it  is  not  the 
true  love  if  it  forgets  tenderness  towards  those  whom  we 
think  in  error. 

136.    TO  DR.  WYLIE  OF  CARLUKE. 

.  .  .  The  great  body  of  the  people  here  have  followed 
Mr.  Miller1  out  of  the  Church,  rather  (I  believe)  on  the 
ground  that  he  is  a  good  man,  and  making  a  sacrifice 
for  conscience'  sake,  than  on  any  personal  convictions  of 
their  own  that  the  principle  on  which  he  acts  is  right.  I 
believe,  also,  that  it  is  generally  felt  that  the  rights  of  the 
people  are  asserted  by  the  seceding  ministers,  which  weighs 
a  good  deal.  The  letters  from  your  elders  are  most  touch- 
ing. I  hope  there  are  many  such  people  in  the  ranks  of 
the  Secession;  but  I  scarcely  think  that  in  this  county,  at 
least  in  the  rural  parts  of  it,  such  are  to  be  found.  And 
as  they  are  most  touching  even  to  me,  who  know  nothing 
of  the  writers,  they  must  be  heart-breaking  to  you.  I  am 
surprised  that  men  like  these  should  have  allowed  an  out- 
ward thing  to  acquire  such  importance  in  their  eyes. 
1  The  Rev.  Samuel  Miller  of  Monifietli. 
S 


274 


LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


1844. 


CHAPTER    XII. 


Letters  from  the  Continent — 1S44-4G. 


In  the  autumn  of  1844  the  establishment  at  Linlathen 
was  temporarily  broken  up.  The  experiment  had  been 
tried  of  making  it  the  home  of  Mr.  Erskine's  two  sisters  as 
well  as  his  own.  The  state  however  of  Mrs.  Paterson's 
health  had  become  such  that  this  idea  was  now  finally 
given  up,  she  and  her  husband  going  in  search  of  a 
warmer  climate.  Mrs.  Stirling  was  prepared  to  part  with 
her  jointure-house  of  Cadder  and  live  permanently  at 
Linlathen.  Ere  setting  up  the  new  regime,  over  which  she 
was  for  many  years  so  happily  to  preside,  she  accompanied 
her  brother  on  a  visit  to  the  Continent.  Partly  owing 
to  her  being  with  him  and  taking  share  in  the  home  cor- 
respondence, and  still  more  to  the  letters  written  at  this 
time  by  Mr.  Erskine  to  his  "  dear  Cousin  Eachel "  having 
been  destroyed,  there  are  but  few  letters  of  this  period  to 
present. 

Rome  was  reached  in  the  beginning  of  winter,  and  soon 
after  his  arrival  Mr.  Erskine  received  a  communication  from 
Lausanne  in  which  he  was  specially  interested.  The 
relations  betwixt  the  civil  authorities  and  the  Church 
of  the  Canton  de  Vaud  had  become  so  complicated  that  on 
the  11th  November  1844  M.  Vinet  addressed  a  letter  to 


JET.  55.  LETTERS  FROM  THE  CONTINENT.  275 

the  Council  of  State  informing  them  that  he  should  feel  him- 
self obliged  at  the  end  of  the  year  to  resign  the  office  of 
Professor  of  Practical  Theology  in  the  Academy  of  Lausanne. 
Writing  to  Mr.  Erskine  to  inform  him  of  this  resolution, 
after  referring  to  a  chronic  malady  of  his  son  which  shut 
up  against  him  any  public  career,  M.  Vinet  says  : — 

"Et  moi  qui  ai  une  carriere,  je  me  vois  sur  le  point 
d'etre  contraint  de  la  quitter.  Ma  place  de  professeur 
m'impose  des  fonctions  qui  impliquent  la  reconnaissance  du 
systeme  ecclesiastique  qui  regit  depuis  cinq  ans  l'eglise 
nationale  de  ce  pays,  et  contre  lequel  j'ai  pro  teste  en 
renoncant  a  ma  qualite  de  membre  du  clerge.  Or  je  le  suis 
encore  par  un  bout,  et  je  ne  puis  le  rester  sans  avoir  a  me 
reprocher  une  inconsequence  que  personne,  je  le  crains, 
n'expliquerait  a  l'honneur  de  mon  desintdressement  ou  de 
la  fermete  de  mes  convictions.  II  est  bon  de  vous  dire, 
bien  cher  monsieur,  que  ma  demission  de  membre  du  clerge 
national  est  independante  de  mon  systeme  sur  l'eglise  et 
l'etat,  et  que,  quand  je  croirais  a  la  legitimite  de  cette  union, 
je  ne  m'en  separerais  pas  moins  d'un  gouvernement 
ecclesiastique  et  d'une  loi  dont  le  principe  est  cyniquement 
materialiste.  II  est  facheux,  pour  moi  du  moins,  qu'en 
secularisant  la  faculte  de  theologie,  on  ait,  par  me>arde 
peut-etre,  laisse  pendrc  a  nos  charges  de  professeurs  un 
lambeau  d'attrjbutions  eccl^siastiques  qui  font  de  nous, 
malgre  nous,  malgre  moi  du  moins,  des  fonctionnaires  do 
l'eglise  ;  mais  la  chose  est  ainsi :  je  ne  puis  la  changer.  Ce 
n'est  pas  tout :  avant  que  la  loi  fut  faite,  avant  que  mon 
livre  fut  ecrit,  moins  d'une  annee  apres  mon  entree  en 
charge,  j'avais  concu  des  doutes  penibles  sur  ma  vocation 
au  professorat  de  theologie.   .  .  . 

"Laissez-moi  vous  dire  combien  je  dois  a  un  livre  qui  vient 
de  vous,  quoique  vous  ne  me  l'ayez  pas  envoye  :  '  The  Brazen 
Serpent.     (Le  serpent  d'airain.)'     Que  de  choses  qu'il  me 


276  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKI£TE.  1844. 

semble  avoir  toujours  pensees  !  Oh  !  s'il  m'etait  donn6  de 
sentir  avec  vous  comme  il  m'a  6te"  donne  de  penser  avec 
vous  !  .  .  . 

"  Voila  mon  papier  rempli  et  mon  coeur  n'est  pas  vide. 
II  ne  s'y  passe  rien,  ni  dans  ma  tete  non  plus,  que  je  ne 
voulusse  vous  dire.     Surtout  je  voudrais  vous  entendre." 


137.  TO  M.  VINET. 

Corso,  Rome,  Dec.  28,  1844. 
My  dear  Fkiend, — In  reading  over  your  most  interesting 
letter,  the  only  comfort  that  presented  itself  to  me  was 
that  "  not  a  sparrow  falleth  to  the  ground  without  our 
Father,"  and  that  "  the  hairs  of  your  head  are  all  numbered," 
and  so  utterly  unhelpful  did  I  feel  myself,  that  I  did  not 
like  even  to  answer  you,  but  thought  that,  like  Job's  friends 
at  their  first  meeting  him,  I  should  sit  silent  beside  you. 
But  though  I  cannot  give  you  any  light  or  strength  to 
guide  and  sustain  you,  I  can  give  you  a  brother's  sympathy, 
and  I  can  present  your  burden  along  with  my  own  to  Him 
who  has  said,  "  Cast  your  burden  on  the  Lord,  and  He  will 
sustain  you."  It  is  indeed  a  most  complicated  case  of 
sorrow  and  perplexity — your  poor  position,  the  feeling  that 
consistency  requires  you  to  give  up  your  professorship,  yet 
knowing  that  it  is  just  the  place  for  which  your  faculties 
and  character  fit  you,  and  that  in  it  you  have  more  apparent 
opportunity  of  doing  good  than  in  any  other; — all  this 
aggravated  by  a  nervous  state  of  body,  affecting  your  mind. 
I  cannot  venture  to  suggest  anything,  except  this — that  if 
your  conviccion  that  you  ought  to  renounce  your  chair 
arises  from  the  apprehension  that  others  may  think  that 
your  continuing  to  hold  it  is  the  result  of  a  mercenary 
feeling  in  you,  and  not  from  a  distinct  perception  of  the 
Tightness  of  such  a  step  in  your  own  conscience,  you  should 


jet.  56.  MADAME  FOR  EL.  277 

take  means  to  ascertain  whether  such  a  feeling  in  others 
does  exist  to  any  extent.  I  could  not  wish  you  to  remain 
for  a  moment  in  any  situation  where  you  could  not  look 
straight  up  to  God,  but  I  should  be  sorry  that  you  left  a 
situation  in  which  He  has  placed  you,  from  any  other  fear 
than  that  of  opposing  His  will. 

I  am  very  thankful  that  you  have  got  any  good  out  of 
the  "  Brazen  Serpent."  During  the  time  that  I  wrote  it  I 
was  conscious  of  communion  with  God  in  my  own  spirit ; 
and  whether  the  view  which  I  take  of  the  history  be  just 
or  not,  I  believe  that  it  contains  much  of  the  meaning  of 
Christianity.  I  think  that  I  was  mistaken  in  my  impres- 
sions as  to  the  appearances  of  the  spiritual  gifts  ;  but  that 
is  of  very  little  consequence,  and  perhaps  my  chief  error  in 
the  book  is  that  I  give  too  much  importance  to  them.  I 
shall  be  delighted  to  receive  the  new  edition  of  your 
discourses,  having  found  them  already  helpful  to  me,  and 
always  finding  your  friendship,  and  every  expression  of 
it,  a  precious  gift  from  the  Giver  of  all  good.  I  am  also 
pleased  that  you  have  chosen  such  an  occupation  as  the 
translation  of  a  Kempis,  the  humility  and  meekness  and 
heavenly-mindedness  of  the  book  are  so  true  and  living. 
.  .  . — Yours  most  truly,  T.    Erskine. 

After  passing  the  winter  in  Rome,  Mr.  Erskine  and  his 
sister  travelled  by  a  circuitous  route  to  Geneva,  which  they 
reached  early  in  October. 

138.   TO  MADAME  FOREL. 

Florence,  29^  Nov.  1S45. 
My  dear  Friend, — Many  thanks  for  your  book,  which 
I  have  read  with  great  interest.     I  think  that  it  is  calcu- 
lated to  be  useful  to  many,  the  true  state  of  a  Christian  in 
his  daily  walk  with  God  in  the  inner  man  of  the  heart,  is 


278    .  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1S45. 

so  fully  and  constantly  recognised  in  it,  and  all  departures 
from  that  state  are  so  thoroughly  condemned  as  sins.  We 
are  so  apt,  through  indolence,  to  form  a  low  standard  of 
Christianity  to  ourselves,  and  to  hope  that  all  is  well  with 
us,  whilst  we  are  not  directly  offending  against  a  law  of 
God  in  our  thoughts  and  desires,  although  we  are  not 
entering  heartily  into  His  purpose  with  regard  to  ourselves 
and  others,  nor  endeavouring  to  be  fellow-workers  with 
Him  in  that  purpose — we  are  so  apt  thus  to  fall  asleep, 
that  it  is  good  for  us  to  hear  the  voice  of  a  brother-man 
deploring  and  condemning  things  in  himself  as  grievous 
sins,  which  we  may  have  been  allowing  to  pass  unreproved 
in  ourselves,  and  thus  to  be  led  to  consider  whether  we 
have  not  been  voluntarily  permitting  ourselves  to  fall 
asleep  in  the  midst  of  our  course. 

There  is  an  English  book  written  by  one  John  Foster, 
a  Baptist  lately  dead,  containing  many  profound  and 
striking  thoughts,  one  of  the  subjects  treated  is  "on 
a  man's  writing  memoirs  of  himself."  In  this  essay 
he  supposes  the  man  to  go  through  the  whole  journey 
of  his  life,  and  to  note  at  each  stage  any  conviction  or 
habit  or  taste  which  he  had  acquired  there  in  his  advance 
forward,  and  to  consider  what  it  was  that  had  been  the 
direct  occasion  of  his  making  this  acquisition.  The 
writer  remarks  here,  how  often,  when  we  came  to  the 
conclusion,  we  should  find  on  this  review  that  the  casual 
meeting  with  a  fellow-creature,  for  whom,  perhaps,  we  had 
no  great  respect,  and  whom  we  never  saw  but  once,  or  the 
reading  of  a  book  which  on  the  whole  we  disapproved  of, 
and  had  not  read  again,  had  left  indelible  impressions  on 
our  character,  whilst  we  had  felt  little  influence  from  the 
presence  of  a  Being  whose  relation  to  us  was  that  of  an 
ever  present,  ever  loving,  ever  counselling  Father,  of  whose 
wisdom  we  never  presumed  to  doubt.     I  remember  reading 


<ST.  57.  MADAME  FOREL.  279 

that  essay  when  I  was  seventeen  or  eighteen  years  of  age, 
and  feeling  the  truth  of  it  very  much ;  I  felt  how  life  was 
necessarily  a  progressive  education  of  our  character  either  for 
good  or  for  evil,  and  that  the  responsibility  connected  with 
this  our  position  was  of  such  a  solemn  and  overpowering 
weight  that  a  continual  receiving  of  help  from  on  high  was 
essential  to  our  success,  and  a  continual  looking  to  God 
for  that  help  was  our  first  duty  and  our  chief  privilege. 
I  determined  also  to  keep  a  journal  of  my  own  history,  but 
T  gave  it  up,  feeling  that  I  did  not  do  it  truly. 

...  I  am  here  at  Florence  enjoying  the  works  of  art  very 
much.  There  are  some  beautiful  frescos  by  Beato  Angelico 
ili  Fiesole,  which  have  given  me  special  gratification,  and 
edification  also  I  should  say ;  his  pictures  express  the 
humility  and  the  heavenly  aspirations  of  a  devout  soul,  far 
more  than  any  paintings  I  ever  saw ;  it  is  said  that  he 
never  began  to  paint  without  praying  for  guidance  and 
help.  How  profitable  should  we  all  be  one  to  another  if 
we  thus  did  everything  in  the  spirit  of  prayer ;  we  should 
then  be  fulfilling  God's  purpose  in  creating  us  after  His  own 
image.  .  .  .  May  the  Lord  be  with  you,  dear  friends. — 
Yours  most  affectionately,  T.  Erskine. 

In  the  Tyrolese  Bavaria,  in  a  miserable  little  village  inn 
on  the  borders  of  the  Tegernsee,  Mr.  Erskine  had  in  the 
preceding  summer  found  an  English  gentleman,  Mr.  Wagner, 
lying  with  his  leg  dreadfully  shattered,  the  carriage  in  which 
he  and  his  family  had  been  travelling  having  been  over- 
turned. Mr.  Erskine  remained  some  days  with  them, 
sympathising  most  tenderly,  giving  such  help  as  he  could, 
becoming  acquainted  with  Dr.  Foster  and  his  wife, — a 
daughter  of  Jean  Paul  Richter,  Avho  were  living  in  the 
neighbourhood.1 

1  See  "  Memoir  of  Rev.  George  Wagner"  (Cambridge,  1858),  pp.  77,  78. 


280  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1S46. 

139.    TO  MR.  WAGNER. 

64  Via  Sistina,  Roma,  Jan.  9,  1846. 
My  dear  Sir, — I  hope  this  letter  will  find  you  pro- 
gressing onwards  towards  a  perfect  recovery.  .  .  .  Will  you 
ask  Miss  Wagner,  with  my  best  regards,  to  let  (Madame 
Foster)  Richter's  daughter  know  that  I  appreciate  most 
highly  the  kindness  of  her  intention  of  sending  me  her 
father's  portrait,  but  that  I  entirely  coincide  with  her 
husband's  opinion  that  it  ought  not  to  go  out  of  the  family. 
In  fact,  though  I  should  have  rejoiced  to  have  received  it 
as  an  expression  of  love,  yet  I  should  also  have  rejoiced  to 
have  sent  it  back  as  an  act  of  justice.  Let  her  be  told  this, 
with  my  true  heart-felt  love,  for  such  I  bear  her ;  and  I 
shall  remember  her  and  my  interview  with  her  on  the 
sweet  shores  of  Tegernsee.  .  .  . 

140.    TO  MADAME  DE  STAEL. 

Rome,  Jan.  1846. 
I  BELIEVE  that  we  should  seek  to  have,  and  to  be  satisfied 
with,  the  sympathy  of  Christ ;  that  is,  the  sympathy  which 
strengthens  and  girds  up  the  loins  of  the  heart,  whilst  it 
gladdens.  We  need  tonics  to  fit  us  for  our  life-battle — 
not  emollients.  Yet  I  find  it  an  evil  thing  for  me  to  live 
with  those  who  can  give  me  no  sympathy,  however  good 
and  worthy  they  may  be ;  for  they  teach  me  to  lock  up  my 
heart  and  all  its  feelings,  which  produces  spiritual  con- 
gestion, as  bad  for  the  soul  as  the  congestion  of  blood  is  in 
any  bodily  organ.  I  know  the  value  of  Mrs.  Rich  as  a 
sympathiser.  I  have  sympathised  with  her,  and  been 
sympathised  with  by  her,  and  I  know  that  her  love 
rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity,  but  rejoiceth  in  the  truth  (1  Cor. 
xiii.  6),  which  gives  sympathy  its  right  tonic  quality.  I 
am  persuaded  that  there  are  many  hearts  that   contain 


jey.  57.  MRS.  BURNETT.  281 

much  sympathy,  as  the  rock  contains  the  water,  without 
giving  any  sign  of  its  presence  until  smitten  by  Moses' 
rod.  .  .  . 

141.  TO  MRS.  BURNETT. 

Carlsbad,  July  13,  1846. 
I  CAN  see  no  possible,  reasonable,  and  enduring  peace  for 
any  human  being  in  this  world,  except  in  the  conviction 
that  everything  which  happens  in  this  world  is  appointed 
or  permitted  with  a  purpose  of  love  to  every  one.  It  is  a ' 
large  school,  and  there  are  many  scholars,  and  we  are 
trained  through  each  other.  The  parent  is  educated  through 
the  child,  and  the  child  through  the  parent ;  but  the  great 
fatherly  Teacher  sees  and  orders  all,  and  does  not  permit 
that  the  education  of  the  one  should  be  at  the  expense  of 
the  other.  A  man  injures  me  either  by  hurting  my 
feelings  or  by  evil  suggestions,  and  counsel,  and  example, 
or  by  that  general  unsympathising  manner  which  closes,  or 
rather  which  has  a  tendency  to  close  up  my  heart.  There 
is  an  education  to  him  through  what  he  sees  and  meets  with 
in  me  in  consequence  of  his  conduct  to  me,  and  there  is  an 
education  to  me  also.  I  am  conscious  that  I  have  conducted 
myself  often  towards  different  individuals  in  a  way  which 
appeared  likely  to  deteriorate  or  injure  their  characters, 
and  to  turn  them  from  God ;  and  the  thought  would  be 
intolerable  if  I  did  not  really  believe  that  God  was  watch- 
ing over  all,  and  that  He  permitted  this  in  such  a  way  as 
to  make  my  bad  or  unwise  conduct  an  important  part  of 
the  education  of  those  individuals.  This  does  not  and 
ought  not  to  prevent  self-condemnation,  but  it  gives  light 
with  regard  to  consequences.  I  find  an  ocean  of  unfathomed 
comfort  in  that  word,  "  He  hath  included  them  all  in  un- 
belief, that  He  might  have  mercy  on  all."  Many  things 
appear,  and  are,  irretrievable  to  us,  but  there  is  nothing 


282  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1846. 


irretrievable  with  God.1  This  is  a  great  gospel  to  my  heart. 
He  who  knows  how  to  take  occasion  from  the  fall  to  bring 
in  the  redemption,  may  be  safely  trusted  with  each  event, 
and  with  every  action,  good  or  bad.  I  believe  that  love 
reigns,  and  that  love  will  prevail.  I  believe  that  He  says 
to  me  every  morning,  "  Begin  again  thy  journey  and  thy 
life ; "  thy  sins,  which  are  many,  are  not  only  forgiven,  but 
they  shall  be  made  by  the  wisdom  of  God  the  basis  on  which 
He  will  build  blessings."  Beloved  friend,  lift  up  your  head, 
and  hear  Him  who  says,  "  All  power  is  committed  unto  me 
in  heaven  and  earth ;"  therefore  let  us  not  fear,  but  rest 
assured  that  for  all  these  things  we  shall  yet  magnify  His 
great  and  glorious  name.  It  becomes  us  to  go  mourning, 
but  let  us  mourn  in  an  assured  hope  that  He  will  overcome 
evil  with  good. 

1  A  favourite  and  oft-repeated  saying. 


jet.  58.  REV.  J.  M.  CAMPBELL.  283 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

Letters  from  1847  till  1S52. 

Those  autumn  receptions  at  Linlatlien  which  began  in 
1847  were  continued  almost  uninterruptedly  for  the  next 
twenty  years.  They  owed  much  to  the  delicate  tact  and 
graceful  courtesy  of  Mrs.  Stirling.  Speaking  of  her  after 
her  death  in  1866,  Professor  Jowett,  a  frequent  guest  at 
Linlathen,  says  : — "  I  have  always  felt  that  Mrs.  Stirling 
had  a  great  hold  on  all  who  knew  her.  Besides  her  good- 
ness and  excellent  sense,  she  had  a  quick  perception  of 
character,  and  a  sort  of  quiet  amusement  in  things  that 
struck  her,  which  made  her  conversation  very  pleasant." 
However  varied  were  the  elements  around,  she  had  the 
happy  art  of  blending  them  into  harmony.  Her  brother's 
gentle  geniality  and  loving  sense  of  the  ludicrous  rendered 
her  task  the  easier.  Mr.  M'Leod  Campbell,  in  August 
1847,  having  written  to  Mr.  Erskine  to  ask  whether  it 
would  be  convenient  to  receive  his  brother  and  son  at  Lin- 
lathen, got  the  following  prompt  reply  : — 

142.    TO  THE  REV.  J.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL. 

Linlathen,  Wth  August  1847. 

Donald  will  be  most  welcome,  for  his  own  sake  and  for 
your  sake.  I  like  to  keep  up  my  acquaintance  with  the 
succeeding  generation. 

Mr.  Maurice  will  be  no  hindrance,  I  hope,  to  the  coming 


2S4  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1847. 

of  your  brother  and  Major  Dalzell.     I  have  given  up  the 
idea  of  sorting  people — 

Mingle,  mingle,  mingle, 
Mingle  as  they  may. 

I  leave  it  to  the  master  of  the  music  to  arrange  them. 

T.  Erskine. 

143.    TO  MADAME  EOREL. 

May  18,  1847. 
Dear  Friend, — I  have  heard  of  Vinet's  death,  and 
desire  to  know  the  circumstances  of  it,  and  I  apply  to  you 
as  one  able  and  willing  to  give  the  information,  and  also  to 
tell  me  how  poor  Mme.  Vinet  is.  It  seems  strange  to  me 
to  think  that  he  is  no  longer  in  this  world,  whom  I  had 
regarded  since  I  first  knew  him,  as  an  instrument  that  God 
had  fashioned  and  fitted  for  a  great  and  much-needed 
work  amongst  those  who  spoke  his  language, — it  seems 
strange,  for  he  has  left  his  work  not  half  finished  accord- 
ing to  our  apprehensions ;  but  God  knows  His  own  way. 
The  work  is  His,  and  He  knows  how  it  is  to  be 
accomplished.  Vinet  was  indeed  a  remarkable  man — 
remarkable  for  large-mindedness  and  humble-mindedness, 
rendering  to  God  the  glory  of  His  gifts.  He  was  a  great 
gift  himself  from  God  to  his  country  and  to  his  age ;  for 
such  men,  such  apostolical  prophetic  men,  are  indeed  God's 
most  precious  gifts.  His  chief  gift  was  the  man-God  Jesus 
Christ,  and  His  gifts  next  in  value  are  men  filled  with  the 
spirit  of  Jesus.  What  a  consolation  to  all  who  knew  his 
value,  and  especially  to  those  who,  like  you,  had  the  high 
privilege  of  being  intimate  with  him,  and  experiencing  the 
genuineness  and  tenderness  of  his  friendship !  I  have 
always  regarded  his  friendship  as  one  of  my  most  precious 
possessions,  gratifying  to  my  feelings  and  profitable  to  my 
soul,  calling  me  from  all  low  and  worldly  thoughts  to  the 


Mr.  59.  MRS.  MACNABB.  285 


pursuit  of  what  was  imperishable.  Dear  Madame  Vinet, 
what  a  blow  to  her !  May  the  Lord  be  her  stay  and  her 
consolation !  Indeed,  where  else  is  there  help  in  any  cir- 
cumstances %  But  Vinet  was  in  such  a  special  manner  the 
life,  and  pride,  and  head  of  his  family,  and  friends  also, 
that  I  cannot  help  thinking  of  them  as  sheep  without  a 
shepherd.  .  .  . — Yours  most  truly,  T.  Erskine. 

144.    TO  THE  SAME. 

Linlathen,  June  21,  1847. 
Dear  Madame, — I  regret  having  been  so  tardy  in 
getting  any  information  for  you  with  regard  to  the  translat- 
ing and  publishing  of  M.  Vinet's  works  in  this  country. 
.  .  .  I  was  much  touched  by  dear  Mme.  Vinet's  letter; 
there  can  be  but  few  losses  like  hers,  because  there  are  so 
few  men  like  him  in  the  world.  Such  a  combination  of 
mental  power  and  Christian  character  is  the  rarest  of  all 
things.  I  look  round  me  in  vain  for  anything  like  it. 
.  .  . — Yours  most  truly,  T.  Erskine. 

145.    TO  MRS.  MACNABB. 

Ltnlathex,  Dundee,  Dec.  11,  1847. 
Dear  Mrs.  Macnabb, — You  may  know  that  death  has 
been  doing  his  work  within  our  circle  lately.  Miss  Graham 
of  Airth,  my  mother's  eldest  remaining  sister,  eighty-four 
years  of  age,  died  last  week.  A  fine  old  specimen  of  natural 
character  and  life,  and  one  whom  I  remember  from  the 
earliest  dawn,  a  vigorous  clear-eyed  woman,  capable  of 
being  a  martyr  for  any  good  cause,  full  of  affection  more- 
over, and  full  of  old  traditions  and  memories,  Avliich  are 
now  to  be  forgotten  by  all  men.  .  .  .  With  affectionate 
regards  to  Mr.  Macnabb,  I  remain,  yours  most  lovingly, 

T.  Erskine. 


2S6  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1S48. 

146.    TO  MADAME  FOREL. 

Linlatuen,  25th  April  1848. 

Dear  Madame, — When  I  write  to  you  or  to  any  Chris- 
tian friend  at  present,  I  am  led  to  realise  strongly  that  in 
the  midst  of  all  the  confusion  and  tumult  which  cover  the 
face  of  Europe  there  is  still  a  sphere  of  peace  and  safety, 
inaccessible  to  any  violence,  in  which  those  who  trust  in 
God  may  dwell  securely,  and  delight  to  remember  that  all 
things  must  work  together  for  good  to  those  who  love  God; 
and  even  more  than  this,  that  all  things  are  so  overruled, 
that  finally  the  earth,  now  so  full  of  sin  and  misery,  shall 
be  full  of  the  knowledge  and  glory  of  God,  as  the  waters 
cover  the  sea.  The  hope  of  the  final  restoration,  even  of 
those  who  are  now  wandering  farthest  from  God,  is  to  me 
a  most  precious  hope.  It  is  a  hope  also  in  perfect  harmony 
with  the  great  principle  that  we  must  eat  of  the  fruit  of  our 
own  doings,  for  I  believe  that  no  mortal  being  can  ever  rise 
out  of  misery  except  by  rising  out  of  sin,  and  that  none  can 
rise  out  of  sin  except  by  partaking  in  Christ's  death ;  that 
is,  by  accepting  the  due  punishment,  and  by  ceasing  from 
their  own  will,  and  living  in  the  divine  will. 

I  cannot  look  on  France  without  many  anticipations  of 
evil,  of  the  recurrence  perhaps  of  the  atrocities  of  the  old 
Revolution  ;  for  in  case  of  a  collision  between  the  moderate 
and  the  communists  and  ultras,  and  even  the  temporary 
victory  of  the  latter,  dark  deeds  would  inevitably  be  done ; 
and  you  see  how  contagious  the  spirit  is — the  spirit  of 
selfishness  and  insubordination.  I  remember,  in  the  year 
1838,  dear  M.  Yinet  told  me  that  there  would  probably 
soon  be  political  movements  in  the  Canton  de  Vaud.  I 
said,  "  Where  every  man  is  an  elector,  and  every  man  is 
eligible  to  any  office  in  the  state,  what  ground  can  there  be 
for  a  political   movement1?"     He    answered,   "It    is   not 


JET.  59-  THOMAS  CARLYLE.  287 

enough  for  them  to  be  eligible,  they  wish,  every  one,  to  be 
elected."  .  .  .  — Yours  most  truly,  T.  Erskine. 

147.    TO  THOMAS  CARLYLE,  ESQ. 

Linlathen,  1st  June  1848. 

My  dear  Mr.  Carlyle, — I  have  read  your  articles  with 
the  wish  that  you  had  some  steady  organ  through  which  you 
might  converse  with  the  people  of  these  countries  periodi- 
cally. I  am  sure  it  would  be  most  healthful  for  many, 
and  they  would  receive  from  you  what  they  would  refuse 
from  any  other.  ...  Is  it  not  altogether  a  most  wretched 
delusion  to  suppose  that  a  half  or  quarter  civilised  people 
should  be  legislated  for  and  treated  as  if  they  were 
civilised  ]  England  is  to  be  blamed  doubtless  for  selfish- 
ness in  her  dealings  towards  them  in  time  past,  but 
not  for  the  assumption  of  authority,  which  is  just  what 
they  need,  were  it  only  wise.  After  all,  I  have  an  appre- 
hension that  there  is  something  in  their  blood,  which  will 
make  self-government  in  Ireland  as  hopeless  as  in  Hayti. 
Mr.  Combe,  the  phrenologist,  was  here  yesterday;  he  spoke 
of  the  Irish  as  being  generally  characterised  in  their  physical 
organisation  by  a  want  of  conscientiousness,  of  discernmcin 
of  consequences,  and  of  caution,  and  by  the  presence  of  a 
redundant  combativeness  and  destructiveness,  to  a  degree 
that  made  him  conceive  that  it  would  require  many  gener- 
ations under  the  best  moral  training  to  fit  them  for  what 
is  called  free  government.  I  think  there  is  much  truth  in 
Mr.  Combe's  deliverance.  What  do  you  think  of  this  curi- 
ous heroico-pathetic  scene  at  the  conviction  of  John  Mitchell 
— for  madness,  I  should  say,  still  more  than  for  felony?  AW 
must  look  to  God  for  a  fit  man  to  take  up  all  these  loops ; 
a  strong-hearted  and  strong-headed  man.  I  felt  the  kind- 
ness of  sending  me  these  papers  very  much.  All  good  attend 
you  and  Mrs.  Carlyle. — Yours  ever  truly,  T.  E. 


2SS  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


148.    TO  MR.  G.  GALLOWAY.1 

LlNLATHEN,  JuilZ  1848. 

Dear  Friend, — I  am  much  gratified  by  your  writing  to 
me  at  this  strange  time.  The  thoughts  of  any  earnest  in- 
telligent man  could  never  be  without  interest  to  me  at  any 
time,  but  now  when  there  is  a  universal  shaking  of  all  old 
recognised  foundations,  I  feel  especial  interest  in  listening 
to  any  utterance  in  reference  either  to  the  causes  or  the 
remedies  of  these  movements  that  seems  to  proceed  from 
a  true  feeling  or  a  true  insight.  It  is  quite  manifest  that 
the  reign  of  wisdom  and  righteousness  is  the  only  perfect 
government,  and  that  a  government  is  good  or  bad  exactly 
as  it  approaches  or  recedes  from  that  ideal ;  in  the  same 
way  as  the  inward  government  of  a  man's  own  heart  is  good 
or  bad  according  as  wisdom  and  righteousness  rule  within 
him  or  not ;  and  freedom  and  good  government  mean  the 
same  thing.  A  man  is  free  in  his  own  spirit  when  that 
which  ought  to  be  uppermost  in  him  is  uppermost,  and 
that  is  subject  which  ought  to  be  subject,  and  such  a  free- 
man will  desire  to  see  the  same  freedom  in  the  government 
of  nations  ;  but  he  will  not  dream  of  creating  it  by  giving 
political  power  to  those  who  are  the  slaves  of  pride,  selfish- 
ness, passion,  and  appetite.  Freedom  is  a  moral  state,  and 
cannot  be  produced  by  mechanical  contrivances.  Like  you, 
I  cannot  separate  between  religion  and  politics. 

I  believe  that  society  and  all  its  combinations  is  intended 
by  God  to  form  a  school  for  the  education  of  the  indivi- 
dual in  likemindedness  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  no  law  is 
rightly  framed  which  does  not  originate  in  this  purpose ; 
and  thus  I  regret  all  social   and   political  revolutions  as 

1  A  mason  or  housebuilder  in  Glasgow.  "  It  was  this  George  Galloway 
of  whom  Scott  said,  after  being  with  me  to  see  him,  that  he  was  one  of 
the  nobles  of  nature." — Memorials  of  Dr.  M'Leod  Campbell,  vol.  i.  p.  275. 


XT.  59.  LORD  RUTHERFURD.  289 

most  speaking  advertisements  to  men  and  to  nations  that 
they  have  not  yet  found  the  right  principle  of  combina- 
tion. 

The  communists  have  a  distorted  idea  of  the  true  thing ; 
they  see  that  there  ought  to  be  a  common  interest,  but  they 
wish  to  have  the  works  of  love  without  the  principle  of 
love.  Poor  fellows,  I  don't  wonder  at  their  zeal ;  oh  that 
they  saw  the  meaning  of  their  own  inarticulate  cry !  and 
that  other  political  sects,  radicals,  chartists,  etc.,  would  but 
consider  what  self-government  really  consists  in,  and  would 
set  about  having  it  and  practising  it  in  good  earnest,  and 
that  they  would  learn  to  see  and  acknowledge  the  hand  of 
God  in  the  formation  and  ordering  of  society,  for  thus  they 
would  without  a  feeling  of  degradation  give  reverence  to 
authorities  and  institutions ;  but  this,  through  blindness 
to  God — practical  atheism — they  have  lost,  and  in  it  they 
have  lost  the  only  principle  of  union  which  can  stand ;  for 
true  brotherly  love  supposes  the  acknowledgment  of  a 
common  Father.  Spiritual  order  is  the  mark  toward  which 
we  should  be  continually  aiming,  within  and  without.  This 
is  liberty,  and  this  only — the  liberty  wherewith  Christ 
maketh  free.     Peace  be  with  you. — Yours  truly, 

T.  Erskine. 

149.    TO  LORD  RUTHERFURD. 

Linlathen,  June  29,  1S48. 
.  .  .  The  technical  conventionalities  of  our  Scotch  preach- 
ing seem  to  me  to  stifle  all  the  religious  life  and  sentiment 
of  the  country.  People  are  partisans  for  election  and  re- 
probation— for  Free  Church  or  Established  Church — and 
zealous  partisans  too  :  but  I  see  little  of  yielding  up  the 
will  to  be  a  sympathising  recipient  of  the  Divine  will,  and 
I  hear  little  preaching  which  makes  that  its  object.  My 
feeling  on  this  matter  reconciled  me  somewhat  to  the  youth 


290  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1848. 

of  Mr.  Robertson  ;  he  is  not  hackneyed  in  that  routine. 
I  have  made  it  a  point  of  honour  not  to  seek  for  a  man 
who  might  symbolise  with  myself,  in  what  might  be  called 
idiosyncrasies  of  mine.  I  have  sought  a  man  of  earnest 
truth  and  ability.  I  hope  this  man  is  such,  but  he  is  un- 
tried.— Ever  yours,  T.  Erskine. 

150.    TO  LORD  RUTHERFURD. 

Linlathen,  Dundee,  July  2,  1S48. 

My  dear  Rutherfurd, — I  have  just  returned  from 
church,  where  I  heard  Mr.  Robertson  preach.  He  is  a  very 
remarkable  man.  I  should  not  wonder  at  his  being  soon 
regarded  as  the  first  man  in  the  Church  of  Scotland. 
He  is  quite  original,  and  has  that  knowledge  of  the 
use  and  meaning  of  words  which  indicates  and  arises 
from  the  finest  kind  of  intelligence.  He  looks  above 
thirty,  and  is  at  once  self-possessed  and  unpresumptuous. 
I  think  him  a  rare  man,  and  should  grieve  exceedingly  at 
losing  him.  I  shall  send  you  testimonials  as  soon  as  I  can 
get  them — four  or  five  good  ones.  .  .  . 

My  dear  R.,  I  am  in  Edinburgh  for  a  few  days,  for  this 
week  at  8  Charlotte  Square.  What  hours  are  you  free  ? 
I  hope  to  see  something  of  you ;  to  look  backwards  and 
forwards  with  you.  I  have  been  seeing  poor  Mackenzie. 
How  many  wrecks  float  around  us,  marking  the  track  we 
have  travelled  by  !— Yours  ever,  T.  Erskine. 

151.    TO  THE  SAME. 

Lixr.ATHEN,  July  14,  1S4S. 
My  dear  Rutherfurd, — I  am  very  thankful  for  this.1 

1  The  appointment  as  minister  of  the  parish  of  Mains  and  Strathmartin, 
of  the  Mr.  Robertson  spoken  of  in  the  preceding  letter.  Dr.  Cannan, 
the  former  minister,  having  resigned  the  charge,  a  committee  was  appointed 
to  look  out  for  a  successor.  Mr.  Erskine,  who  as  a  principal  heritor  of 
Mains  was  a  member  of  the  committee,  having  had  his  attention  directed 
to  a  young  preacher  recently  licenced,  suggested  that  he  should  be  invited 


*rr.  59.  LORD  RUTHERFURD.  291 

and  I  hope  that  those  who  have  had  the  doing  of  it  may- 
receive  God's  blessing  for  it.  I  thank  you  for  what  was 
done  for  me,  but  I  thank  you  much  more  for  what  was  done 
for  Eight ;  and  this  last,  I  believe,  really  covers  the  whole, 
for  your  listening  to  me  was  simply  the  consequence  of  your 
conviction  that  I  desired  what  was  right,  and  in  some 
measure  could  judge  of  it.  I  never  expected  any  personal 
answer  from  Sir  George  Grey ;  in  his  circumstances  it  would 
be  indeed  unreasonable  to  expect  it.  I  feel  for  him,  and 
often  pray  for  light  and  strength  to  him,  as  to  one  who 
needs  them  much.  There  surely  is  light  and  strength  some- 
where in  an  ocean-fountain  ;  the  scanty  rills  of  them  which 
we  find  in  ourselves  seem  to  indicate  an  infinite  source 
from  whence  they  come  ;  and  it  is  pleasant  to  find  that 
source  a  personal  Being — a  Father — a  Friend  in  Avhom  we 
may  trust,  to  whom  we  may  pour  out  our  hearts.  You  will 
come  to  this  some  day,  my  dear  friend,  and  you  will  bless 
Him  who  has  led  you  to  Himself  by  whatever  means.  I, 
though  most  worthy  of  being  neglected  by  Him,  as  I  have 
so  much  neglected  Him,  have  yet  found  Him  a  real  helper 
and  a  real  refuge. 

I  shall  count  on  seeing  you  in  autumn.     You   cannot 
think  what  a  friendship  your  Irish  friends  have  struck  up 

to  preach  in  the  neighbouring  church  of  Liff.  The  other  members  of  the 
committee  who  heard  Mr.  Robertson  on  that  occasion  being  equally 
satisfied,  Mr.  Erskine  undertook  to  bring  his  name  before  the  Government, 
with  whom  the  appointment  lay.  In  this,  owing  to  Mr.  Rutherford's 
influence  with  Sir  George  Grey,  he  succeeded.  After  a  ten  years'  ministry  in 
Mains  and  Strathmartin,  Mr.  Robertson  was  in  1858  translated  to  be 
minister  of  the  Cathedral  Church  of  Glasgow.  Here  his  health  broke 
down,  and  he  died  in  January  1865,  not  having  completed  the  forty-first 
year  of  his  age.  His  "Pastoral  Counsels"  and  "Sermons  and  Exposi- 
tions "  abundantly  verify  the  high  estimate  which  Mr.  Erskine  had  so  early 
formed.  The  Dean  of  Westminster,  in  his  "  Essays  on  Church  and  State  " 
(p.  254),  speaks  of  the  "Pastoral  Addresses  "as  "an  excellent  volume, 
which,  if  the  style  had  been  equal  to  the  matter,  would  have  entitled  then- 
author  to  a  high  place  amongst  the  theological  writers  of  the  age." 


292  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1849. 

with  some  of  my  people ;  and  they  have  so  deep  an 
affection  for  Mrs.  Eutherfurd,  that  I  should  expect  some 
sympathy  on  the  geometrical  axiom — those  that  are  equal 
to  the  same  thing  must  be  equal  to  one  another. — Ever 
affectionately  yours,  T.  E. 

152.    TO  THOMAS  CARLYLE,  ESQ. 

LiyLATHEN,  1st  May  [1849]. 
Dear  Mr.  Carlyle, — I  am  ashamed  of  having  been  so 
long  of  acknowledging  the  many  proofs  of  your  kindly 
remembrance  which  have  reached  me  in  the  shape  of 
Examiners  and  Spectators  from  time  to  time.  Many  thanks 
for  them.  I  have  read  your  articles  with  much  interest  and 
sympathy,  and  I  wish  you  God-speed  in  your  endeavours 
to  stimulate  and  help  our  rulers  in  the  great  Irish  difficult}'. 
0  for  a  man !  That  is  what  is  wanted,  and  it  appears  to 
be  wanted  all  over  Europe — Democrats  and  Legitimists — 
all  wanting  a  man.  May  God  send  him  soon !  Besides 
Ireland,  what  think  you  of  oar  West  Indian  colonies  for  a 
change  ? — exhibiting  the  results  of  perhaps  the  most  insane 
legislation  of  which  the  world  has  seen  an  example — down 
with  slavery,  up  with  slave  sugar !  What  think  you  of 
Eush  and  Hudson  ?  Are  they  not  ominous  signs  of  the 
times — like  the  Due  de  Praslin  and  Teste,  the  forerunners 
of  the  French  overturn  ]  I  have  not  had  a  letter  from  you 
since  that  great  earthquake,  which  has  shaken  all  the 
nations,  and  is  still  shaking  them.  It  has  been  a  sort  of 
stethoscopising,  trying  whether  the  vital  organs  were  in  a 
sound  state;  the  discoveries  made  have  certainly  been 
rather  unpleasant.  I  fear  for  our  own  lungs,  although  we 
have  survived  hitherto,  but  the  increasing  mass  of  idle, 
reckless,  ragged  blackguardism  that  shows  itself  on  all  our 
roads  is  a  fearful  symptom.    In  short,  the  disease  is  alarm- 


jf.t.  60.  THOMAS  CARL  YLE.  293 


ing,  and  the  doctors  do  not  appear  to  know  what  to  do. 
Beloved  fellow-men,  what  is  to  come  out  of  it  1  There  is 
One  who  said  with  power,  "  Come  out  of  the  man,  thou 
unclean  spirit."  No  other  Healer  will  do  for  us.  Is  not 
that  true,  good  sir  ? 

Notwithstanding  all  these  things  (which,  after  all,  we 
shall  leave  behind  us  in  the  course  of  a  very  few  years), 
how  have  you  and  Mrs.  Carlyle  passed  this  winter  and 
spring  1  Have  you  been  solacing  yourselves  in  the  country, 
or  satisfying  yourself  with  Hyde  Park  and  your  back 
garden  ?  I  often,  in  thought,  walk  down  Cheyne  Row  and 
look  in  upon  you.  Our  weather  is  just  beginning  to  relent, 
and  the  buds  and  leaves  are  coming  forth  as  if  there  were 
no  sin  in  the  world.   .  .  . — Yours,  with  much  love, 

T.  Erskine. 

Your  friend  Mazzini  seems  to  have  made  a  mess  of  it  in 
Italy.  He  will  be  hanged  yet  some  day,  honest  man!  Let 
me  have  a  line  from  you  giving  a  good  account  of  yourself 
and  friends. 

153.    TO  THE  SAME. 

Linlathen,  22c/  August  1849. 
My  dear  Mr.  Carlyle, — If  you  are  indeed  limited  in 
your  choice  of  days  by  this  present  week,  I  beseech  you  to 
come  instanter  on  the  receipt  of  this  notification,  Mrs.  Car- 
lyle and  you,  there  being  all  needful  accommodation ;  but 
if  you  could  borrow  a  few  days  from  next  week,  we  would 
say  Monday,  not  at  all  for  our  own  convenience,  but  that  I 
might  make  more  sure  of  a  friend  of  mine  whom  I  had  by 
anticipation  invited  to  meet  you  whenever  you  might  come, 
namely,  James  Mackenzie,  a  most  genial  man,  who,  you  may 
remember,  desired  me  to  call  your  attention  to  some  doings  of 


294  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1849. 

Oliver  in  the  upper  ward  of  Lanarkshire,  as  recorded  in  one 
of  the  Bannatyne  books.  Mrs.  Carlyle  wrote  that  you  were 
in  Ireland  under  the  conduct  of  one  of  the  insurgents,  and 
I  am  anxious  to  have  your  report,  whether  you  saw  any 
glimpse  of  hope  for  that  poor  country.  I  am  glad  to  hear 
that  Mrs.  C.  herself  has  been  gathering  health  and  strength 
in  Scotland — a  little  more  strength  to  meet  a  little  more 
exhaustion.  Is  not  that  the  way  of  it  until  it  is  all  over  ] 
You  have  still  a  mother  to  meet  and  part  with.  It  is  a 
wonderful  manifestation.  I  had  by  this  very  day's  post  a 
letter  from  a  friend  enclosing  a  note  from  his  mother,  just 
that  I  might  see  under  what  an  outpouring  of  affection  he 
lived  and  moved  in  this  world.  And  have  we  not  all  a 
real  parent,  though  invisible,  who  is  father  and  mother  in 
one  1  not  confined  either  to  Haddington  or  Ecclefechan.  I 
hope  you  may  long  possess  yours,  as  I  grieve  for  Mrs.  Car- 
lyle's  loss  of  hers,  she  seemed  to  need  her  so  much. 

Well,  we  shall  expect  you  every  day  from  this  Wednes- 
day forward,  until  we  see  you  or  hear  from  you,  .  .  .  and 
with  real  love  from  all  of  us  to  you  and  your  good  lady,  I 
remain  yours  faithfully,  T.  Erskine. 

After  nearly  three  years'  constant  residence  at  Linlathen, 
the  winter,  spring,  and  summer  months  of  1849-50  were 
passed  in  Paris.  Writing  to  Mrs.  Burnett  on  the  10th 
January  1850,  Mrs.  Stirling  says — 

"  The  cold  here  is  extreme.  To-day  I  can  scarcely  hold 
my  pen.  The  streets  are  black  with  frost,  but  whenever 
the  sun  does  get  out,  we  see  it,  and  feel  its  cheering 
influence.  Mercifully  my  sister  has  kept  free  of  cough, 
but  she  looks  very  delicate.  My  brother's  appearance  is 
much  improved,  and  I  think  his  general  health  is  also 
improved.  .  .  .  We  have  enough  of  visitors,  but  not 
too  many.     We  see  dear  Mme.  de  Stael,  Adolphe  Monod, 


mt.  60.  CRAMER  MALLET.  295 

and  some  other  French  friends,  and  we  see  Lady  Trotter 
and  her  daughter,  Lady  Elgin  and  her  daughter,  and 
some  others.  We  see  Plymouth  Brethren,  Irvingites, 
lioman  Catholics,  Puseyites,  and  Evangelicals.  We  see 
much  to  admire  and  love  in  all,  and  much  to  weep  over 
also.  Madame  de  Stael  and  Adolphe  Monod  are  quite  evi- 
dently seeking  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteous- 
ness, and  are  deeply  solemnised  by  the  aspect  of  the  times." 

The  only  letter  of  this  period  from  Mr.  Erskine  that  has 
been  preserved  is  the  following  :  — 

154.    TO  M.  CRAMER  MALLET. 

St.  Germain-en-Laye,  25  Juin  1850. 
Cher  ami, — Si  nous  avions  la  faculte  de  nous  transporter 
par  la  volonte  seule,  nous  nous  trouverions  bientot  aupres 
de  vous;  mais  dans  ce  beau  temps,  quand  la  nature  et 
meme  nos  sensations  nous  poussent  vers  un  pays  oh  les 
lacs  et  les  montagnes  ofFrent  perpetuellement  l'espoir  de  la 
fraicheur,  la  difficulty  de  voyager  s'augmente  beaucoup, 
surtout  pour  les  personnes  agees  et  dont  les  forces  s'epui- 
sent  par  la  chaleur.  Je  voudrois  bien  encore  voir  votre 
interieur  de  famille,  change,  comme  il  doit  etre,  par  le  de- 
vcloppement  du  caractere  de  vos  filles,  et  par  le  progres  des 
autres  membres  de  la  famille.  Nous  devons  tous  avancer 
dans  le  bon  chemin.  Le  terns  s'avance,  et  l'importante 
ceuvre  de  la  vie  doit  aussi  s' avancer.  Nous  avons  passe 
plus  que  six  mois  au  milieu  de  cette  capitale  de  la  civilisa- 
tion Europeenne,  une  civilisation  qui  ne  reconnait  pas  Dieu, 
et  parait  ne  pas  etre  reconnue  par  lui.  II  y  a  un  caractere 
de  superficiality  empreint  sur  toutes  les  manifestations  de 
cette  nation  gaie  et  legere,  qui  la  distingue  de  la  notre,  qui 
meme  dans  son  impiete  parait  serieuse.  J'espere  que  le 
besoin  de  Dieu,  et  d'une  communication  avec  lui,  se  fera 


206  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1851. 

senti  dans  toutes  les  nations  a  present.  Le  besoin  de 
quelque  chose  est  senti,  mais  l'interprete  qui  peut  expliquer 
les  cris  de  la  nature  ne  se  trouve  pas.  Que  Dieu  envoie 
de  vrais  apotres. 

Je  suis  bien  aise  d' entendre  vos  bonnes  nouvelles  du 
oaractere  de  votre  gendre.  Oil  demeurent-ils  1  II  nous 
ferait  grand  plaisir  de  vous  voir  chez  nous  cette  et£ ;  nous 
esperons  y  etre  apres  le  milieu  du  mois  de  Juillet.  Amenez 
Clementine,  et  en  passant  par  Paris,  arrangez  qu'elle  voie 
la  maison  des  Diaconesses  sous  la  direction  de  M.  le  Pasteur 
Vermeil.  Nous  pourrions  facilement  recevoir  toute  la 
famille. 

J'ai  vu  un  peu  M.  Adolphe  Monod,  un  homme  aimable 
et  estimable,  et  admirable  par  ses  talents.  La  position  de 
l'Eglise  me  parait  extremement  mauvaise  ici  comme  chez 
vous.  Chaque  Pasteur  doit  avoir  son  propre  troupeau,  alors 
les  relations  du  Pasteur  et  troupeau  pourroient  exister.  A 
present  elles  n'existent  pas,  qui  est  un  mal  enorme.  Je 
crois  que  M.  Monod  avait  raison,  quand  il  d^cidait  rester 
dans  l'eglise  etablie,  et  pourtant  les  difficult^  que  rencontre 
un  .nasteur  fidele  dans  les  circonstances  actuelles  sont  bien 
dfreuses.  ...  T.  Erskine. 

155.    TO  LORD  RUTHERFURD. 

Linlathex,  29th  March  1851. 
My  dear  dear  Rutherfurd, —  ...  Of  course  I  am 
interested  in  hearing  how  you  get  on  with  Gorgias,  and 
how  you  like  it.  It  is  an  argument  against  which  Voltaire 
might  have  successfully  written  another  Candide,  and  yet 
Leibnitz's  principle  in  the  Th6odic6e,  with  reasonable  modi- 
fications, and  Plato's  in  the  Gorgias,  will,  I  am  persuaded, 
form  a  part  of  the  creed  of  the  most  thinking  and  most 
conscientious  part  of  mankind.  Both  Socrates  and  Voltaire 
laughed,  but  what  different  laughs !     Voltaire  thought  of 


mt.  62.  MRS.  BURNETT.  297 

nothing  but  of  pulling  down  what  was  wrong,  and  he  did 
so  much  really  good  and  useful  work  in  this  way,  that  he  did 
not  feel  the  necessity  of  building  up.  He  was  satisfied  with 
negation ;  that  is  to  say,  negation  with  him  was  so  active 
an  employment  that  he  did  not  come  to  feel  that  in  itself 
it  is  a  vacuum,  and  can  satisfy  no  one.  There  is  something 
irresistibly  comical  in  the  levity  with  which  he  treats  the 
gravest  principles — it  is  like  a  child  pulling  off  an  old  man's 
wig ;  whereas  dear  Socrates  has  such  a  deep  and  true  vene- 
ration for  everything  that  is  really  right  in  principle,  he 
feels  that  without  it  man  and  the  universe  are  nothing 
more  than  a  dust  storm. 

156.    TO  MRS.  BURNETT. 

44  Lowndes  St.,  18th  Feb.  1852. 

My  dear  Cousin, —  .  .  .  There  is  something  marvellous 
in  the  difference  of  the  lots  appointed  to  different  persons. 
We  somehow  or  other  know  more  people  here  than  we 
know  in  Edinburgh,  so  that  Ave  have  a  constant  succession 
of  visitors  of  all  varieties,  to  the  great  wear  and  tear  both 
of  mind  and  body,  and  yet  with  a  great  interest.  The. 
duty  of  bearing  one  another's  burdens  is  a  wholesome 
exercise  to  the  spirit  in  such  circumstances,  preserving  from 
dissipation  and  distraction  in  the  midst  of  the  tumult. 
Yesterday  I  met  with  a  clergyman  who  read  me  a  letter 
addressed  by  360  Italian  peasants  to  a  deputy  of  their  own, 
whom  they  had  sent  to  London  to  inquire  into  the  condi- 
tion of  the  Church  of  England,  and  to  see  whether  they 
could  enter  into  brotherly  relations  with  it.  The  letter 
was  written  in  a  wise  and  temperate  spirit.  These  people 
were  Lombards,  chiefly  from  the  Venetian  territory.  There 
is  also,  as  you  probably  know,  a  great  movement  towards 
the  Bible  in  Tuscany. 

I  had  a  call  also  yesterday  from  one  of  our  Scotch  bishops, 


298  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1852. 

Mr.  Ewing,  Bishop  of  Argyll,  from  whom  I  have  received 
occasional  messages  during  past  years.  I  liked  him;  he 
seemed  to  me  of  a  good  spirit,  and  not  at  all  a  slave  to 
what  is  the  external  of  his  Church. 

157.    TO  MRS.  BURNETT. 

Linlathex,  23(7  August  1852. 
Christian  and  I  went  into  Edinburgh  the  other  day  to 
see  our  cousins  in  Manor  Place.  Cousin  Rachel  seems  fast 
breaking  up.  Her  memory  and  recollection  are  sometimes 
quite  gone,  so  that  she  does  not  recognise  those  dearest  to 
her.  There  is  something  most  touching  in  her  condi- 
tion. When  I  was  in  town  for  the  funeral  of  Mr.  W. 
Erskine,  I  observed  the  beginning  of  this,  and  it  seemed 
to  me  like  a  rebuke  of  all  our  sorrow  for  the  death  of 
friends.  I  never  knew  a  more  loving  spirit  than  hers,  and 
her  expressions  now  are  often  just  the  overflowings  of  a 
heart  filled  with  love  to  God  and  mam  I  cannot  say 
what  sympathy  I  have  had  from  her  at  times  when  I 
needed  it.1 

15S.    TO  LORD  RUTHERFURD. 

LlNLATHEN,    litk   Oct.   1852. 

My  beloved  Rutherfurd, — How  are  you  1  Is  your 
heart  finding  any  rest  1  I  should  be  so  thankful  for  a 
word  from  you,  to  let  me  know  in  what  state  you  are. 
There  was  something  fearfully  stunning  and  overwhelming 
in  the  suddenness  of  the  blow  at  last,2  notwithstanding  her 
long  delicacy.  My  dear  friend,  I  know  no  man  who  has 
had   to  pass  through  such  varied  trials  as  you ;  none  to 

1  "And  poor  Cousin  Rachel,  she  too  is  passing  from  the  scene  on  which 
she  has  always  looked  with  such  a  smile  of  kindliness  and  charity." — 
(Extract  from  a  letter  of  the  late  Lord  Elgin,  dated  Quebec,  23d  October 
1852.) 

2  The  death  of  his  wife. 


X.T.  64.  LORD  RUTHERFURD.  299 

whom  the  voice  from  above  has  come  in  such  different  lan- 
guages, such  sorrow,  and  such  success  ;  and  if  in  your  pre- 
sent circumstances  I  had  room  in  my  heart  for  any  other 
prayer  for  you  than  that  you  might  be  supported  and  com- 
forted, I  would  ask  that  that  oft-repeated  voice  might  not 
come  to  you  in  vain.  Our  spiritual  nourishment  here  on 
this  pilgrimage  is  broken  body  and  shed  blood,  a  will  of 
God  revealed  in  a  blighted  will  of  man.  If  you  are  unable 
to  write  yourself,  your  nephew  will  perhaps  have  the  kind- 
ness to  do  it  for  you.  I  return  him  my  thanks  for  his 
first  letter. 

I  regret  so  much  that  I  did  not  go  down  with  you  the 
day  I  saw  you  at  Fullerton's,  that  I  might  have  seen  her 
face  and  heard  her  voice  once  again. — Ever  affectionately 
yours,  T.  Erskine. 

My  sisters  join  their  sympathy  with  mine. 

159.    TO  THE  SAME. 

Linlathen,  30th  Oct,  1852. 
My  dear  Friend, — How  is  your  heart — your  burdened 
and  broken  heart  1  Who  is  living  with  you,  and  how  are 
you  occupying  yourself]  I  ask  this  not  with  the  wish  that 
you  could  find  something  to  withdraw  you  from  your  sorrow, 
but  rather  hoping  that  you  may  be  learning  its  true  use. 
We  are  placed  amongst  dying  things  that  we  may  be  forced 
to  take  hold  of  the  undying,  and  to  discover  that  this 
"  undying"  is  a  person  with  whom  it  is  possible  to  have 
fellowship,  and  from  whom  we  may  derive  help  and  consola- 
tion, which  is  certainly  our  highest  learning.  "  Come  unto 
me,  all  ye  that  are  weary  and  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give 
you  rest,"  is  the  utterance  which  He  addresses  to  us  in  all 
the  variety  of  our  circumstances  ;  not  calling  us  from  other 
tilings,  but  teaching  us  to  find  Him  in  them  all.     I  shall 


300  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1852. 

hope  to  see  you.  The  burying-ground  where  the  funeral1 
is  to  be  is  divided  from  yonr  own  by  Jeffrey's. — Ever 
yours  affectionately,  T.  Erskine. 

160.    TO  MRS.  BURNETT. 

6th  Nov.  1852. 
Beloved  cousin  Eachel  is  now  released  from  that  bond- 
age under  which  the  flesh  lays  us.  Her  clear,  sweet  spirit 
had  been  clouded  for  the  last  four  months,  but  still  under 
that  mist  a  blessed  inward  life  from  time  to  time  mani- 
fested itself.  Cousin  Manie  is  wonderfully  supported  in 
her  loneliness  as  far  as  it  has  gone  yet ;  she  is  the  last,  not 
of  her  family,  but  of  her  generation.  .  .  .  Lift  up  your  head, 
dear  friend. — Yours  affectionately,  T.  Erskine. 

1  The  funeral  of  Thomas  Thomson,  Esq.,  an  intimate  friend  of  Lord 
Iiutherfurd. 


iET.  6=;.  LORD  RUTHERFURD.  301 


CHAPTER   XIV". 

Letters  from  1853  till  185G. 
1G1.    TO  LORD  RUTHERFURD. 

LlNLATHEN,   loth  Oct.   1853. 

My  dear  Friend, — This  is  my  birthday.  I  am  this 
day  sixty-five  years  of  age.  I  cannot  express  to  you  with 
what  a  weight  of  guilt  the  sense  of  unprofitableness  lies  upon 
me.  You  are  now  one  of  my  oldest  friends,  and  no  one  has 
ever  stood  to  me  in  the  same  place  that  you  have.  What 
a  mysterious  thing  the  history  of  a  man's  being — visible 
and  invisible — is !  Don't  you  feel  it  so  when  you  look 
back  on  your  own  1  Dear  friend,  God's  blessing  be  with 
you. — Yours  ever  affectionately,  T.  Erskine. 

Is  it  not  interesting  to  consider  and  look  back  on  the 
different  compartments  into  which  life  has  been  divided  1 
Certain  persons  and  certain  thoughts  have  predominated  in 
each  of  these  compartments  ;  we  pass  from  one  to  another; 
from  one  set  of  persons  and  thoughts  to  another  ;  many  of 
those  who  have  been  most  important  to  us  have  disappeared 
from  the  outward  picture  of  our  life,  but  yet  retain  their 
place,  or  even  take  a  larger,  in  the  inner.  The  picture 
changes,  and  we — have  we  changed1?  and  if  we  have 
changed,  is  it  progress,  real  spiritual  progress  ] 


302  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1853. 


1G2.    TO  LORD  RUTHERFURD. 

Linlathen,  8th  Nov.  1853. 
Dear  Rutherfurd, —  .  .  .  Have  you  observed  in  the 
papers  that  the  Council  of  King's  College  have  deposed 
Maurice  on  account  of  heretical  doctrines,  taught  in  that 
volume  which  I  gave  you  1  I  understand  that  the  point  is, the 
denial  of  the  unending  duration  of  the  future  punishment. 
I  congratulate  him  on  being  a  martyr  in  such  a  cause ;  but 
I  should  be  sorry  if  at  this  day  the  Church  of  England,  as 
a  body,  confirms  such  a  sentence.  If  spiritual  perfection 
consists  (as  they  would  all  admit  it  does)  in  the  love  of  God, 
and  of  men,  and  of  all  righteousness,  it  is  not  easy  to  see 
how  such  a  doctrine  as  the  eternity  of  punishment  can 
lead  to  it.  Men  cannot  be  frightened  into  love ;  and  they 
cannot  easily  realise  God  as  a  God  of  love,  if  such  a 
doctrine  be  believed. — Ever  affectionately  yours, 

T.  Erskine. 

163.    TO  MRS.  BURNETT. 

Linlathen,  9th  Nov.  1853. 
...  I  HAD  gone  to  town  partly  to  see  Beveridge.  .  .  . 
Besides,  I  wished  also  to  hear  the  introductory  lecture  in 
the  Philosophical  Institution  by  my  friend  Mr.  Scott.1  I 
heard  it,  and  liked  it  very  much;  He  dwelt  chiefly  on  the 
distinction  between  information  and  education,  and  on  the 
greater  desire  for  the  former  than  for  the  latter  manifested 
by  our  population  at  present.  They  did  not  desire  a  know- 
ledge of  principles  so  much  as  of  the  results  of  principles, 
which  they  might  turn  to  immediate  account.  They  did 
not  want  any  deep  improvement  within  their  own  mind, 
but  a  kind  of  knowledge  which  would  enable  them  to 
make  money.     Next  lecture-evening  I  heard  Ruskin,  whom 


Mi.  65.  MRS.  SCHWABE.  303 


I  also  liked  in  his  measure.  You  may  have  observed  in 
the  newspapers  that  my  friend  Maurice  has  been  deposed 
from  his  professorship  in  King's  College,  on  account  of 
heretical  opinions.  The  non-eternity  of  future  punishment 
is,  I  believe,  the  point.  You  know  how  completely  I 
sympathise  with  him  in  this.  I  hope  the  Church  of 
England  will  not  treat  him  as  the  Church  of  Scotland 
treated  Campbell. 

164.    TO  MRS.  SCHWABE.1 

Linlathen,  12th  Dec.  1853. 
Dear  Friend, —  .  .  .  The  spirit  of  Mr.  Tayler's'2  dis- 
course is  very  sweet.     1  feel  that  he  has  a  brother's  heart, 
and  that  I  can  sympathise  much  with  him  in  the  idea  he 
gives  of  the  meaning  and  purpose  of  human  life.     What  I 
desire  further  for  him  is  that  he  should  feel  and  teach  that 
there  is  a  sorrow  in  the  heart  of  God  over  the  resisting  of 
His  purpose  on  the  part  of  man,  and  that  this  loving  sor- 
row is  manifested  in  Christ,  the  man  of  sorrows,  bearing  all 
the  burdens  of  His  brethren,  the  Word,  who  in  the  begin- 
ning was  with  God,  and  was  God.     I  must  refer  you  to 
your  recollections  of  our  conversations  at  Glyn  Garth,  when 
we  talked  of  the  necessity  under  which  we  found  ourselves, 
when  attempting  to  realise  the  existence  previous  to  all 
creation,  to  conceive  of  Him  as  having  within  the  compass 
of  His  own  being  the  capacity  of  both  giving  and  receiving 
love,  and  the  power  of  gratifying  that  capacity ;  an  absolute 
solitariness  is  incompatible  with  the  idea,  or  rather  feeling, 
of  self-completeness.     This  necessity  helps  us  to  entertain 
the  idea  of  the  primal  relations  of  Father  and  Son  being- 
contained  in  the  Godhead,  and  we  are  glad  to  receive  and 

1  A  German  lady  resident  near  Manchester,  a  person  overflowing  with 
benevolence. 
-  John  James  Tayler,  Principal  of  Manch ester  New  College. 


304  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1853. 


acknowledge  the  sentiment  connected  with  this  relation- 
ship as  the  source  of  all  creation.  The  upper  hemisphere  of 
the  circle  of  Deity  gives  us  the  spirit  of  Father,  Giver, 
Master ;  the  lower  that  of  Son,  Receiver,  Servant.  There 
must  he  a  divine  in  all  moral  truth  ;  obedience  is  as  divine 
as  command,  both  proceeding  from  love  and  duty.  This, 
you  may  say,  is  a  human  thought  about  God,  but  I  cannot 
think  of  God  otherwise  than  as  an  infinitely  good  man,  all- 
wise  and  all-powerful.  All  good  desires  in  man,  therefore, 
I  conceive  to  have  their  deep  root  in  God,  and  thus  I  am 
forced  on  the  idea  of  something  like  a  duality  in  God's 
unity,  to  escape  from  the  terrible  thought  of  an  eternal 
solitude  before  creation,  and  from  the  idea  that  God  was 
driven  to  create  in  order  to  have  an  object  of  love. 

We  see  at  once  the  beauty  of  the  idea  that  the  moral 
creation  is  to  be  formed  in  the  image  of  the  Son,  thus 
binding  the  creature  and  the  Creator  together,  but  not 
according  to  the  Pantheistic  idea,  for  the  moral  creature 
has  a  free-will  which,  with  reverence  let  it  be  said,  omni- 
potence cannot  compel,  but  which  all-wise  love  may  train 
and  educate.  In  the  misuse  of  this  free-will  man  turned 
from  the  worship  of  God  to  the  worship  of  self,  but  still, 
as  he  was  created  in  the  divine  image  of  the  divine  Son, 
and  had  his  standing  in  the  Son,  the  spirit  of  the  Son 
within  the  depths  of  His  being  protested  against  his  sin, 
and  suffered  for  him,  the  just  for  the  unjust,  that  He  might 
bring  him  back  to  God.  This  is,  I  believe,  that  great 
work  of  redemption  which  is  set  forth  in  the  history  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

If  you  could  suppose  the  spirit  of  a  loving  man  like  St. 
John  imprisoned  in  the  breast  of  a  violent  murderer  like 
Barabbas,  you  could  not  doubt  but  that  he  would  feel  him- 
self agonised  and  jarred  every  moment  by  the  contact  of 
the  selfish  cruelty  with  which  he  was  environed.     And  yet 


^et.  65.  MRS.  SCHWAB E.  305 

his  suffering  would  not  arise  simply  or  chiefly  from  the 
discrepancy  between  himself  and  Barabbas,  but  because 
he  would  feel  that  Barabbas  was  still  his  fellow-creature, 
his  brother,  and  he  would  not  be  able  to  endure  the  thought 
that  his  brother  should  be  under  the  influence  of  this  fear- 
ful spiritual  malady.  In  fine,  it  would  not  be  disapproba- 
tion merely,  but  love  that  would  produce  his  suffering. 
And  thus,  though  free  leave  were  given  to  him  to  go  out 
from  that  prison-house,  he  would  say  :  '  I  cannot  go,  I  must 
remain  till  I  bring  back  this  poor  brother  out  of  hatred 
into  love,  out  of  self  into  God.'  And  thus  would  he  con- 
tinue in  him,  suffering  for  him,  the  just  for  the  unjust,  that 
he  might  bring  him  back  to  God.  And  when  Barabbas 
melted  under  this  suffering  love,  when  he  also  began  to 
suffer  in  the  thought  of  having  outraged  duty  and  outraged 
love,  when  he  became  partaker  of  John's  sufferings,  he 
would  be  brought  back  to  God.  What  I  have  supposed 
John  to  do  in  the  case  of  Barabbas,  I  believe  in  truth  and 
in  fact  to  be  done  by  Jesus  Christ  in  the  case  of  every 
human  being.  I  believe  that  He  is  in  every  man,  and  that  1 
it  is  His  suffering  voice  which  speaks  in  the  conscience  of 
every  man.  I  believe  that  He  is  thus  suffering  for  every  ' 
man,  the  just  for  the  unjust,  that  He  may  bring  us  back  to 
God.  I  believe  thus  that  the  recorded  history  of  our  Lord 
in  the  Gospels  is  the  outward  and  objective  manifestation 
of  a  great  subjective  truth  which  is  going  on,  and  which 
will  go  on  until  every  soul  of  man  is  brought  back  to  God. 
And  I  am  sure  that  the  sorrow  which  holy  love  feels  for 
sin  is  the  true  essential  and  divine  medicine  for  sin.  I 
believe  that  the  knowledge  of  the  distinction  between  right 
and  wrong  is  a  most  precious  gift ;  and  yet  I  believe  that 
it  cannot  alone  accomplish  the  task  of  turning  man's  heart 
from  self  to  God.  We  need  to  know  that  the  voice  which 
in  conscience  speaks  to  us  of  right  and  wrong  is  the  voice 

u 


306  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1854. 

of  a  love  which  suffers  when  we  do  wrong,  and  must  con- 
tinue to  suffer  until  we  return  from  self  to  God. 

Dear  friend,  this  is  a  very  confused  statement,  hut  I  am 
confident  that  the  roots  of  great  truths  are  contained  in  it. 
Our  former  talks,,  if  remembered  by  you,  will  throw  a  light 
on  it. 

You  say  that  you  know  I  have  felt  sympathy  with  Uni- 
tarians.1 The  truth  is,  I  have  thought  that  they  have  not 
been  rightly  met.  They  have  been  confronted  with  texts 
and  traditions,  instead  of  being  met  with  reason  and  truth 
and  love.  This  is  my  sympathy  with  them,  for  I  think 
them  wrong. — Ever  affectionately  yours,      T.  Erskine. 

1G5.    TO  THOMAS  GARLYLE,  ESQ. 

38  Charlotte  Sq.,  Edtne.,  22d  March  1854. 

Dear  Mr.  Carlyle, — The  welcome  which  I  gave  to 
your  kind  letter  and  its  accompaniments  would  have  been 
more  truly  expressed  by  a  speedier  answer.  But  my  time 
has  been  occupied  by  various  forms  of  nothing  since  I  have 
been  in  Edinburgh,  so  that  I  have  been  hindered  from 
doing  the  things  which  I  most  wished.  .  .  .  My  sister, 
Mrs.  S.,  was  much  nattered  by  your  remembrance  and  gift, 
and  would  have  written  herself  if  she  had  supposed  it  pos- 
sible that  I  could  have  allowed  your  packet  to  remain  so 
long  unacknowledged,  but  she  was  at  Linlathen  and  I  in 
Edinburgh,  and  I  did  not  tell  her  of  my  non-doings.  During 
my  absence  here  the  house  of  Linlathen  was  entered  by 
thieves  Avho  contrived  to  take  away  very  little,  but  left 
behind  an  unpleasant  feeling  of  insecurity. 

Drummond's  pamphlet  is  a  strange  production.  The 
general  condition  of  dislocation  in  society  seems  to  me 
rather  true ;  but  the  remedy,  that  of  entering  his  church, 
does  not  meet  the  necessities  of  the  case.     I  believe  that 

1  Mrs.  Schwabe  was  a  Unitarian. 


at.  65.  CHEVALIER  BUNSEN.  307 

nothing  short  of  a  right  perception  of  the  relation  of  God 
to  man,  and  of  man  to  God,  will  do  the  desired  work ;  but 
as  to  the  living  machinery  which  may  teach  or  infuse  this 
perception  the  difficulty  remains.  Your  friend,  Lord  George 
Hill,1  has  done  something,  it  appears,  and  gives  occasion  to 
desire  the  multiplication  of  Lord  Georges.  He  and  Lord 
Ashburton  both  act  on  Nelson's  signal,  "  England  expects 
every  man  to  do  his  duty,"  and  for  my  poor  part  I  give 
them  my  best  thanks  and  best  wishes,  hoping  for  still 
higher  and  better  things.  We  had  a  visit  from  your  friend 
Kingsley,2  and  I  heard  his  lectures  on  Alexandria,  in  com- 
pany with  dear  old  James  Mackenzie.  .  .  .  Poor  fellow, 
he  has  lost  his  two  sisters  .  .  .  which  makes  him  very 
lonely ;  but  he  has  a  fine  sociable  loving  spirit,  not  easily 
to  be  quenched.  Give  your  dear  wife  my  affectionate 
regards,  and  believe  me  to  be  lovingly  yours, 

T.  Erskine. 

1G6.    TO  CHEVALIER  BUNSEN. 

L.INLATHEN,  DUNDEE,   Sth  August  1854. 

My  dear  Chevalier, — Your  farewell  lines  from  St. 
Katharine's  Dock  were  very  gratifying  to  me,  written  as 
they  were  from  under  such  a  pressure  of  thoughts  as  must 
have  been  lying  upon  you  at  that  time.  I  now  congratulate 
you  on  your  escape,  not  from  work,  for  I  can  never  regard 
true  genuine  work  in  a  great  cause  to  be  other  than  a  pri- 
vilege and  an  honour,  but  from  the  perplexity  of  being 
called  to  do  work  in  one  way  which  you  thought  ought  to 

1  Referring  to  Lord  George's  improvements  in  an  estate  in  the  county  of 
Donegal.     See  "Facts  from  Gweedore,"  by  Lord  George  Hill  ;  1845. 

2  Charles  Kingsley  says,  "Mr.  Erskine  of  Linlathen  is  a  charming  old 
man."  During  his  visit  to  Linlathen  he  writes,  "This  place  is  very 
pleasant,  and  Mr.  Erskine  delightful.  He  gave  us  a  long  exposition  last 
night  about  the  indwelling  Word,  and  I  am  delighted  to  find  that  our 
views  seem  to  agree  thoroughly." — Life  of  Charles  Kingsley,  vol.  i.  p.  418. 


308  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1854. 


be  done  in  another.  And  though  I  can  never  congratulate 
any  man  on  leaving  England,  yet  I  can  congratulate  you  on 
being  set  down  at  Heidelberg,  and  on  the  banks  of  that 
beautiful  stream.  The  Neckar  I  have  always  considered 
the  sweetest  feature  in  Germany.  I  wish  you  much  peace 
there  and  domestic  enjoyment,  and  much  inspiration  in  true 
philosophy  and  true  history,  to  give  value  to  that  leisure 
which  is  given  you.  I  have  known  you  now  for  nearly 
thirty  years,  and  I  have  always  found  my  intercourse  with 
you  to  be  a  stimulant  for  good  to  me,  because  I  have  always 
found  you  living  under  a  vocation  to  use  the  faculties  God 
has  bestowed  on  you,  for  the  advancement  of  light  and 
truth  in  the  world.  I  am  sure  that  you  will  do  so  in  your 
present  circumstances,  and  that  many  will  profit  by  your 
retirement. 

I  hope  your  ladies  are  all  well, — Madame  Bunsen  and 
her  daughter,  Miss  Amelia,  and  the  rest.  The  love  of  God 
is  everywhere,  and  so  the  possibility  of  peace  and  spiritual 
progress  is  everywhere  also.  May  this  possibility  have  its 
full  realisation  in  your  house !  Farewell. — Ever  truly 
yours,  T.  Erskine. 

167.    TO  MR.  MAURICE. 

7  Forres  Street,  Edinburgh,  3d  Nov.  1S54. 
My  dear  and  much-honoured  Friend, — I  cannot 
easily  express  to  you  the  depth  of  sympathy  with  which  I 
have  been  reading  your  book  which  you  sent  me.1  I  have 
read  the  dedicatory  letter  and  the  first  five  sermons.  In  the 
letter,  the  expression  of  your  feeling  is  sometimes  harrow- 
ing ;  it  seems  written  in  your  heart's  blood.  I  was  at  first 
almost  surprised  that  you  could  feel  so  unspiritual  and,  I 
might  even  say,  so  unintelligent  a  criticism  so  deeply ;  but 

1  The  Doctrine  of  Sacrifice. 


jet.  66.  MR.  MA  UR1CE.  309 

I  soon  perceived  that  your  agony  was  a  righteous  agony, 
which  it  would  be  good  for  me  and  others  to  enter  into. 
"  If  ye  die  with  Him,  ye  shall  live  with  Him  ;  if  ye  suffer 
with  Him,  ye  shall  reign  with  Him."  Beloved  friend,  you 
are  witnessing  a  good  confession  for  the  God  of  truth  ;  and 
I  am  thankful  to  say,  that  I  feel  more  and  more,  in  your  tone 
and  manner  of  expressing  yourself,  the  outcoming  of  a  great 
conviction,  which  uses  your  faculties  for  its  own  purpose. 

Were  I  capable  of  it,  I  should  rejoice  to  give  my  country- 
men the  true  idea  of  your  method  of  teaching,  as  well  as 
of  the  teaching  itself;  feeling,  as  I  do,  that  they  are  so 
much  occupied  and  possessed  by  another  far  inferior  method, 
that  they  turn  aAvay  from  that  higher  and  purer  kind,  as  if 
it  were  unintelligible ;  but  I  am  not  fit  for  the  task.  I 
wished  often,  during  the  course  of  the  summer,  to  have 
tried  to  have  persuaded  you  to  spend  some  quiet  time 
with  us  ;  but  we  thought  that  any  place  which  was  not 
your  own  home,  or  any  people  which  were  not  your  own 
people,  might  be  a  burden  to  you.  Farewell. — Ever  truly 
yours,  T.  Erskine. 

I  shall  be  in  Edinburgh  when  you  are  down,  and  I  would 
look  out  for  a  resting-place  for  you,  if  you  would  allow  me. 

1G8.    TO  THE  SAME. 

7  Forres  Street,  20tft  Nov.  [1854]. 
My  dear  Friend, — I  have  just  read  the  13th  sermon 
of  the  "Doctrine  of  Sacrifice."  As  I  finished  those  that 
preceded  it,  I  often  had  the  thought  of  writing  to  you  and 
expressing  the  deep  sympathy  which  I  felt,  and  my  convic- 
tion that  this  was  indeed  the  unveiling  of  our  Father's 
heart.  But  after  reading  "  Christ's  Sacrifice  a  Peace-offer- 
ing for  Mankind,"  I  cannot  help  writing  to  say  how  thankful 
I  feel  to  God  that  such  words  are  spoken  to  our  generation, 


310  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKIXE.  1S55. 

and  that  they  are  words  of  truth  and  soberness,  though 
they  cast  into  deep  shade  all  that  man,  if  left  to  the  mere 
inspiration  of  his  own  desires,  could  ever  have  imagined. 

If  the  rash  censures  which  have  been  passed  upon  your 
Essays  have  led  to  this  production,  good  has  certainly  come 
out  of  evil ;  and  if  your  censurer  himself  reads  these  dis- 
courses, I  cannot  but  think  that  his  heart  must  smite  him 
for  what  he  has  said. 

The  paragraph  beginning  on  the  211th  page,  and  ending 
in  the  next,  is  inexpressibly  precious.  I  hope  to  speak  to 
you  of  some  of  these  things  at  leisure,  or  rather  to  hear 
you  ;  and  to  this  end,  I  hope  you  will  allow  me,  as  I  pro- 
posed to  you  before,  to  be  your  host  whilst  you  are  in 
Edinburgh.  .  .  . — Yours  ever  truly,  T.  Erskine. 

169.    TO  MRS.  PATERSOX. 

21  Westbourne  Street,  London,  14th  Feb.  [1855]. 
My  dear  Davie, — .  .  .  I  may  as  well  give  you  a  sketch 
of  yesterday's  proceedings.  Before  breakfast  was  well  away, 
Mrs.  Schwabe  made  her  energetic  and  loving  appearance. 
She  sat  with  us  a  good  while.  .  .  .  Mr.  Maurice  then  came 
in,  and  I  almost  immediately  stated  to  him  the  difficulties 
and  obscurities  which  had  been  felt  by  many  readers  of  his 
works,  even  by  those  who  admired  them  and  loved  their 
spirit.  I  told  him,  that  people  could  not  make  out  whether, 
according  to  him,  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  had  made  any 
change  on  the  general  condition  of  humanity,  or  whether 
it  was  only  a  manifestation  of  God's  character  in  relation 
to  man.  I  pressed  on  him  that  he  might  make  this  more 
distinct,  and  ought  to  do  it.  When  he  went  away,  we 
went  out,  and  called  on  the  Bishop  of  Natal,  who  is  a 
handsome,  young,  intelligent,  frank-looking  man  ;  he  spoke 
pleasantly  about  his  mission.  .  .  . — Ever  affectionately 
yours,  T.  Erskine 


at.  66.        REV.    THOMAS  WRIGHT  MATHEWS.  311 


170.    TO  THE  REV.  J.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL. 

London,  April  1855. 
My  dear  Friend, — .  .  .  I  have  seen  a  good  deal  of 
Maurice.  I  hear  him  every  Sunday  with  great  interest. 
He  fully  apprehends  that  what  has  given  to  earnest 
Calvinistic  preaching  its  great  power. is,  that  it  sets  forth 
God  and  not  man,  as  Arminianism  has  done.1  I  have  seen 
Kingsley  too,  and  Bishop  Ewing,  and  a  Mr.  Baldwin  Brown, 
a  friend  of  Scott's,  an  Independent  minister.  I  also  see 
Carlyle,  whom  I  really  love,  there  is  so  much  geniality  of 
heart  about  him.  My  sister  Mrs.  Stirling  is  struggling 
against  cold  and  London  oppression,  sooty  atmosphere, 
visiting,  etc. — Yours  ever  affectionately,       T.  Erskine. 

171.    TO  THE  REV.  THOMAS  WRIGHT  MATHEWS.2 

5  Duke  Street,  Portland  Place, 
London,  12th  April  1855. 
My  dear  Friend, — I  wish  you  would  get  from  that 
goddaughter  of  the  old  lexicographer  some  documents 
authenticating  her  relationship  as  goddaughter  to  him. 
Do  you  think  that,  in  the  parish  register  of  her  baptism, 
any  record  of  the  fact  could  be  found  1  For,  if  the  history 
could  be  fairly  made  out,  there  can  be  little  doubt  but  that 
something  could  be  done  for  her.  I  mentioned  the  matter 
to  Carlyle,  who  immediately  said  that  the  Prime  Minister 
would  feel  that  the  bestowment  of  a  small  pension,  at  least 

1  Speaking  of  Calvinism  and  Arminianism,  Mr.  Erskine  said  that  the 
former  was  a  sheep  in  wolf's  clothing,— the  latter  a  wolf  in  sheep's  clothing. 

-  For  thirty  years  minister  of  the  Baptist  Church  at  Boston,  in  England. 
He  first  met  Mr.  Erskine  at  Hamburg  in  1822  (ante,  p.  31).  Looking 
back  to  their  intercourse  at  that  time,  Mr.  Mathews,  flTty  years  afterwards, 
says,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Erskine,  "  I  often  feel  my  religion  so  fresh  and 
green,  and  my  preaching  so  young  and  joyous,  that  I  am  surprised,  and, 
inwardly  thanking  God,  cannot  but  remember  that  it  is  to  you,  as  the 
instrument,  I  owe  all  my  light  and  life. " 


312  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1855. 

to  the  extent  of  keeping  her  from  want,  would  be  recog- 
nised by  the  whole  country  as  a  right  use  of  power.  Now. 
do  something  speedily,  my  dear  man,  I  heard  Maurice  on 
Sunday.  His  father  was  lying  an  unburied  corpse,  having 
died  on  Friday  before.  His  text  was  the  sixteenth  Psalm, 
which  he  read  over  three  times  with  excellent  comment ; 
first,  as  it  must  have  been  understood  or  felt  by  David 
or  his  contemporaries  ;  second,  as  it  might  have  been  used 
by  Christ  Himself;  thirdly,  as  it  is  to  be  understood  by 
ourselves.  It  was  one  of  the  most  striking  sermons  I  have 
ever  listened  to.  .  .  . — Ever  yours  affectionately, 

T.  Erskine. 

172.    TO  THE  REV.  THOMAS  WRIGHT  MATHEWS. 

5  Duke  St.,  Portland  Place,  11th  May  1S55. 
My  dear  Friend, — Have  I  seemed  negligent  of  you  and 
your  commission  1  But  not  so  in  fact,  for  I  went  down  to 
Deptford  with  Carlyle  and  saw  your  ladies  and  their 
curious  relics  ;  and  Carlyle  met  almost  immediately  after 
with  the  Bishop  of  Oxford,  who  is  the  almoner  of  some 
royal  bounty,  and  put  down  their  names  (both  of  them,  and 
to  the  survivor)  for  £10  annually,  which  is  some  addition 
to  their  small  means.  He  has  hope  of  something  further, 
but  that  is  only  in  prospect.  Dear  Sir  Bobert  Inglis  has 
been  carried  away  from  the  waves  of  this  troublous 
world  to  the  rest  which  remaineth  to  the  people  of  God. 
I  have  known  and  loved  him  long,  and  have  received  much 
love  from  him,  and  so  the  world  is  that  much  emptier  for 
me.  .  .  .  Ever  affectionately  yours,  T.  Erskine. 

173.    TO  MR.  MAURICE. 

August  1855. 

My  dear  Friend, —  ...  I  was  called  on  Friday  last 
week  to  attend  the  funeral  of  F.  Russell's  wife;  you  re- 


iCT.  66.  M.   GAUSS  EN.  313 

member  him,  I  am  sure.  She  was  an  amiable  ami  most 
interesting  person.  ...  I  met  Dr.  Hanna  of  the  Free 
Church  there,  who  told  me  that  your  friend  Davis's  brother 
in  the  Crimea  was  very  ill — dangerously  so.  He  told  me 
also  an  interesting  anecdote  of  poor  Capt.  Lyons,  who  had 
died  at  Therapia  under  the  care  of  the  Mackenzies.  Just 
before  his  death,  Mrs.  Mackenzie  carried  something  to  him. 
He  rallied  a  little  and  thanked  her,  and  then  said,  "  Good- 
bye," and,  as  if  to  comfort  her,  he  added,  "You  must 
expect  to  lose  some  of  your  patients."  Dear  Russell's 
house  is  darkened.  My  sisters  join  me  in  best  regards  to 
you  both. — Ever  affectionately  yours,  T.  Ekskine. 

174.    TO  M.  GAUSSEN. 

Linl.vthen,  2*1  Hi  Aug.  1S55. 

My  dear  Gaussen, — We  have  just  received  a  letter 
from  our  cousin,  Mrs.  Bosanquet,  in  which  she  speaks  of 
you  and  your  mother,  and  your  sister  and  Caroline,  in 
terms  which  correspond  so  well  with  the  impressions  which 
remain  in  my  own  heart  of  you  all,  that  I  feel  stirred  up 
to  write  a  word  of  brotherly  love  to  you.  My  visits  to 
Geneva,  and  my  relations  with  many  there  whom  I  loved, 
and  hope  always  to  love,  form  one  of  the  most  pleasing 
remembrances  of  my  life.  I  often  pass  them  in  review 
before  my  mind's  eye,  the  dead  and  the  living,  and  recall 
words  and  looks,  which  reveal  the  spirit,  and  which  address 
and  can  only  be  understood  by  our  spiritual  organs. 

The  beautiful  nature,  the  lake,  the  mountains,  the  sun- 
risings  and  settings,  the  mysteries  of  light,  and  colour, 
and  distance,  re-appear  also  like  the  visions  of  another 
world  purified  from  all  pollutions,  declaring  infinite  love, 
and  power,  and  holiness.  I  should  like  to  pay  another 
visit  to  that  lovely  land,  and  to  converse  with  you,  my 
friend,  on  the  many  wonderful  things  which  our  God  has 


314  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1855. 

shown  us  and.  taught  us  since  we  first  met,  above  thirty 
years  ago.  For  my  own  part  I  have  much  reason  to  be 
ashamed,  but  I  have  also  much  reason  to  bless  the  God  of 
all  patience.  Dear  Merle  has  lost  his  wife ;  he  was  my  first 
Genevese  friend,  and  I  have  never  ceased  to  love  him.  Mr. 
Haldane  had  paid  his  visit  to  you  a  short  time  before  that, 
and  had  been  the  means  of  stirring  up  a  new  life  in  some 
of  the  young  men.  The  matter  of  his  teaching  was  what 
ought  to  be  the  subject  of  all  teaching,  "  the  free  grace  of 
God;"  but  he  surely  did  not  sufficiently  consider  the 
fearful  power  in  man  to  resist  that  grace,  and  so  fell  into 
the  mistake  of  supposing  that  those  only  who  manifested 
the  effects  of  grace  had  been  visited  by  grace,  or  were 
embraced  within  God's  purpose  of  grace;  and  thus  man's 
confidence  was  necessarily  made  to  depend  on  something 
which  he  discovered  within  himself,  instead  of  the  purpose 
of  God  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ  for  every  man.  I  cannot 
write  to  you,  my  dear  friend,  without  saying  something 
of  this  great  salvation,  which  God  is  working  out  against 
such  opposition  on  the  part  of  man.  Give  my  love  to 
Merle  and  my  sympathy.  Give  my  love  to  all  the  branches 
of  the  dear  C —  family  and  to  all  the  Cramers,  descend- 
ants of  my  loving  hosts,  M.  and  Mad.  Cramer ;  to  the  de- 
scendants also  of  Mad.  Necker  de  Saussure —  the  Turretins. 
Farewell,  beloved  friend.  My  affectionate  regards  to  each 
member  of  your  own  family. — Ever  truly  yours, 

T.  Erskine. 

The  following  letter  of  M.  Gaussen  gives  an  affecting 
narrative  of  the  death  of  his  mother  : — 

TO  MR.  ERSKINE. 

Les  Gkottes,  1 7  Sept.  ]  855. 
Mon  cher  Erskine, — Depuis  hier  je  n'ai  plus  de  mere 
ici-bas.     Je  me  sens  le  besoin  de  vous  le  faire  savoir,  pour 


jet.  66.  FROM  M.    GA  USSEN.  315 

que  vous  vous  associez  a  ma  douleur  et  a  mes  consolations. 
Vous  y  avez  et6  vous  meme,  vous  aviez  connu  le  prix  de  celle 
que  j'ai  perdue.     Elle  etait  encore  Vendredi  matin  d'une 
admirable  sante  pour  son  grand  age,  d'une  amabilite  d'esprit 
et  d'une  tendresse  de  coeur  rarementdonnees  a  de  plus  jeunes. 
Vendredi,  a  8  heures  du  matin,  mes  cousines  Puerari,  ma 
soeur,  ma  fille,  mes  quatre  domestiques  et  moi,  nous  mont- 
ames  dans  sa  chambre  autour  de  son  lit,  pour  la  priere  du 
matin,  qui  devait  avoir  un  interet  particulier,  parceque  c'etait 
le  jour  anniversaire  de  sa  9  le  annee.     Elle  nous  dit  apres  la 
priere  des  mots  tendres  et  charmants  que  je  crois  entendre 
encore.    Nous  descendimes  pour  dejeuner;  mais  on  vintbien- 
tot  appeler  ma  sceur  de  sa  part  (c'etait  9|  heures).     "  Quand 
je  te  vois  entrer  dans  ma  chambre,"  lui  dit-elle,  "je  suis  la 
plus  heureuse  des  meres."     "  Je  t'aime  pour  ce  que  je  vois 
en  toi,"  ajouta-t-elle  (a  l'occasion  d'un  tendre  reproche  que 
lui  faisait  Sophie),  "  mais  Dieu  m'aime  malgre  ce  qu'il  voit 
en    moi.     Je  desire  me   lever."    Et   sans   attendre  la  re- 
ponse,  elle  sortit  elle-meme  de  son  lit  et  s'assit  sur  un  fau- 
teuil  pour  s'habiller  de  ses  propres  mains,  quand  Sophie 
vit  son  visage  s'alterer,  courut  a  elle  et  s'agenouilla  a  ses 
cdtes,  nous  faisant  appeler.     Ma  mere  n'etait  plus  sur  la 
terre  !    Nous  fumes  quelque  terns  a  ne  le  pas  croire ;  car  il 
n'y  eut  pas  une  plainte,  pas  un  effort,  pas  un  soupir ;   nous 
n'avons  pas  meme  pu  dire  le  moment  precis  oil  son  ame 
bienheureux  s'envolait  vers  son  Dieu.     II  y  a  cinq  semaines 
qu'ayant  fait  une  chute  qui  n'eut  aucune  suite  facheuse,  elle 
crut  etre  a  son  dernier  jour  et  nous  fit  tous  appeler  pour 
nous  donner  sa  benediction  :  "  Rendez   grace   avec  moi," 
nous  dit-elle,  "j'avais   toujours   craint  ce   moment;  mais 
Dieu  me  remplit  Fame  d'une  paix  qui  m'etonne  moi-meme." 
Merle,  Demale,  Bertholet  et  moi,  nous  priaines  tour  k  tour 
hier  sur  sa  tombe  ;  beaucoup  d'amis  et  de  freres  chantaient 
autour  de  la  fosse  ce  beau  cantique  :  "  Non,  ce  n'est  pas 


316  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1855. 

raourir  que  d'aller  vers  son  Dieu.  .  .  ."  Je  suis  tres 
afflige ;  je  sens  un  grand  vide  de  n'avoir  plus  ce  cosur  de 
mere  occupe  de  son  fils  sur  la  terre ;  de  ne  plus  retrouver 
a  notre  table  celte  bonne  tendre  et  ven6ree  amie  qui  etait 
1'ornement  et  la  joie  de  ma  maison,  et  qui  portait  des  fruits 
de  justice  j usque  dans  la  vieillesse  toute  blanche,  arbre 
plante  de  Dieu  dans  les  parvis  de  l'Eternel.  Je  demande 
au  Seigneur  qu'il  m'instruise,  m'humilie,  et  me  rende  plus 
aimant — par  sa  sainte  parole  et  par  ses  dispensations. 

Cher  ami,  voila  bien  des  details.  Pour  un  autre  que 
vous  ils  seraient  de  trop.  Mais  j'ai  cru  les  devoir  a  votre 
amitie.  Je  n'ai  jamais  oubli6  ce  mot  aimable  que  vous  me 
dites,  il  y  a  25  ans :  "  Gaussen,  je  connais  votre  mere,  et 
vous  n'avez  pas  connu  la  mienne."  Ce  mot  demeure 
encore  sur  mon  coeur.  Je  me  sens  une  fraternity  de  plus 
avec  ceux  qui  aiment  et  venerent  une  mere.  Dieu  vous 
benisse  et  vous  garde,  mon  cher  Erskine  1  Eecevez  les 
vceux  sinceres,  serieux  et  tendres,  de  mon  amitie.  Je  ne 
veux  pas  controverser  avec  vous  ;  vous  avez  dix  fois  plus 
d'esprit  que  moi  ;  je  dirai  que  vous  en  avez  trop.  Ne 
construisez  pas  Dieu,  cher  ami ;  reverez-le  tel  que  la  Sainte 
Bible,  divinement  inspired  et  faite  pour  les  simples,  l'a 
decrit.  Ce  Dieu  nous  a  convertis  des  idoles  de  ce  monde 
pour  le  servir  com  me  un  Dieu  vivant  et  vrai,  et  pour 
attendre  des  cieux  son  fils  Jesus  qui  nous  a  delivres  de  la 
colere  a  venir.  Certainement  il  y  a  un  colere  a  venir, 
puisque  Dieu  le  dit.  Certainement  il  y  a  un  Fils  unique 
qui  en  delivre  les  croyants.  Certainement  celui  qui  a  le 
Fils  a  la  vie  eternelle,  mais  celui  qui  ne  croit  pas  au  Fils, 
la  colere  de  Dieu  reste  sur  lui.  0  graces  a  Dieu  pour  son 
don  ineffable.  Je  vous  ai  gard6  une  vraie  affection  et  une 
vraie  estime  ;  j'ai  aussi  des  souvenirs  tres  reconnaissants  de 
vous  et  de  votre  famille.  Saluez,  je  vous  prie,  de  ma  part 
Monsieur  et  Madame  Paterson,  ainsi  que  Madame  Stirling 


xt.  66.  M.   GAUSSEN.  317 


(votre  soeur)  si  elle  se  souvient  de  moi. — Votre  afflige"  et 
affectionne,  L.  Gaussen. 

P.& — Vous  auriez  bien  fait  d'ecrire  quelques  paroles  de 
sympathie  a  Merle.  J'ai  eu  beaucoup  de  plaisir  a  faire  la 
connaissance  des  Bosanquet  et  de  tous  leurs  garcons. 
J'aimais,  en  voyant  Madame,  a  me  rappeler  sa  bonne  soeur. 
Le  mari  est  un  homme  fait  droit.  J'avais  connu  son  pere, 
qui  me  disait  de  lui,  il  y  a  une  quinzaine  d'annees  :  "  J'ai 
en  Lincolnshire  un  tres  bon  fils,  tendre  et  respectueux." 

175.    TO  M.  GAUSSEN. 

Lixlathek,  22'i  Sept.  1855. 

Dear  Gaussen,  beloved  Friend, — So  that  long  life  is 
terminated,  and  you  have  no  longer  before  your  eyes  that 
sweet  symbol  of  the  love  of  your  Father  in  heaven.  She 
is  no  longer  with  you,  but  I  believe,  as  you  do,  that  these 
human  relationships  have  an  eternal  truth  in  them,  spring- 
ing from  an  eternal  root,  the  eternal  relations  of  the  Father 
and  the  Son.  He  has  formed  us  in  His  own  image,  and 
our  human  relationships  are  parts  of  that  image,  and  there- 
fore in  their  measure  and  degree  may  be  expected  to 
partake  in  the  eternity  of  their  root.  Just  before  I  received 
your  letter,  I  had  been  reading  at  our  family  worship  the 
17th  chapter  of  St.  John,  in  which  our  Lord  speaks  such 
wonderful  words  about  the  union  of  man  with  God,  "I  in 
them,  and  Thou  in  me,"  "  that  they  may  be  made  perfect 
in  one."  Dear  friend,  I  would  suffer  with  you,  and  I  would 
also  rejoice  with  you  for  her  sake,  for  her  release  from  the 
bondage  of  mortality.  I  can  accompany  you  in  the  long 
retrospect  of  life,  in  the  whole  of  which  she  occupies  such 
a  place ;  so  that  her  life  was  a  constituent  element  of  your 
life  from  infancy  onwards.  Dear  woman — I  see  her  before 
me,  her  genial,  quiet,  motherly  face  and  character;  her 


318  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1855. 

look  and  voice  of  benevolence  and  wisdom  and  solidity.  I 
know  no  higher  attribution  that  can  be  given  to  man  than 
that  of  unselfishness  and  dutifulness,  recognising  that  the 
law  of  his  being  does  not  spring  from  himself,  but  comes 
to  him  from  God.  And  this  makes  the  distinction  between 
the  world's  love  and  Christian  love.  Christian  love  is  un- 
selfish and  dutiful,  whilst  the  other  with  all  its  beauty  is 
soiled  by  selfishness  in  one  form  or  other.  And  thus  we 
have  our  completeness  in  Christ.  The  Son  comes  from  the 
bosom  of  the  Father  to  be  the  ground  and  law  of  man's 
being,  and  to  know  Him  as  such,  and  the  Father  who  sent 
Him,  is  eternal  life.  The  eternal  death  consists  in  man's 
persisting  in  abiding  in  his  own  selfish  will,  and  refusing 
that  kingdom  of  heaven  a  place  within  him.  I  love  you, 
dear  Gaussen.  The  scenes  at  Satigny  return  to  me  like 
the  scenes  of  my  youth,  as  do  other  connections  at  Geneva. 
.  .  .  You  speak  to  me  of  dear  Merle,  and  say  that  I  ought 
to  write  to  him.  Since  ever  1  heard  of  his  sorrow,  I  have 
purposed  to  write  to  him,  but  my  own  unmarried  condition 
made  me  feel  as  if  I  were  less  fitted  to  be  a  sympathiser 
with  him  than  I  can  be  in  your  sorrow.  Sizice  my  first 
meeting  with  Merle  I  have  never  ceased  to  value  and  love 
him,  and  I  know  the  exceeding  tenderness  of  his  affections. 
I  have  read  the  little  souvenir  with  deep  interest  and 
thankfulness.  .  .  .  Madlle.  Sophie  and  your  daughter  will 
feel  this  blank  along  with  you,  but  you  will  find  it 
abundantly  supplied  in  Him  who  is  the  completeness  of 
man. — Ever  affectionately  yours,  T.  Erskine. 

P.S. — I  shall  write  to  Merle  in  a  day  or  two ;  in  the 
meantime  assure  him  of  my  brotherly  love  and  sympathy 
Dear  friend,  on  reading  over  this  letter,  I  feel  as  if  I  had 
not  given  out  the  tithe  of  my  love  to  you,  or  of  my  gratitude 
for  your  writing  to  me  so  soon. 


iET.  67.  THOMAS  CARLYLE.  310 


176.    TO  THOMAS  CARLYLE,  ESQ. 

Linlathen,  20th  Oct.  1855 
My  dear  Mk.  Carlyle, — Every  token  of  your  remem- 
brance is  highly  valued  by  me,  and  the  pamphlet  itself  is 
not  a  little  interesting  and  instructive.  A  man  who  would 
be  helpful  to  men  must  be  a  brother,  not  a  supercilious 
dealer  out  of  doles  to  them.  The  mercy  which  expresses 
itself  in  the  last  way  can  bless  neither  him  that  gives  nor 
him  that  takes.  Mr.  Waddell  has  ceitainly  some  adminis- 
trative faculty,  but  then  he  was  a  dissenter,  aud  an  un- 
authorised unofficial  philanthropist,  and  as  such  be  had  no 
right  nor  reason  to  expect  anything  but  counteraction  from 
official  incapables.  It  is  a  comfort,  however,  to  see  that  an 
administrative  faculty  even  in  such  circumstances  can 
accomplish  something,  and  most  gratifying  it  is  to  find 
what  recognition  it  meets  from  those  in  whose  behalf  it  is 
exercised.  The  complete  triumph  would  be  to  enlist  even 
the  influential  incapables  themselves  in  the  service  by 
peaceful  wisdom. 

I  hope  you  are  now  finding  the  good  effects  of  your  silent 
and  solitary  rides  on  your  health  both  of  body  and  mind. 
I  take  it  for  granted  that  you  are  now  returned  to  London 
(although  it  is  rather  too  soon  to  leave  the  leafy  lanes, 
when  they  are  just  putting  on  their  autumnal  colours),  and 
that  you  are  again  engaged  with  the  old  seven  years'  man. 
A  painful  wrestle  with  difficulties  he  had,  and  his 
biographer,  I  suppose,  must  have  if  he  would  through  him 
give  faithful  instruction  to  living  men.  .  .  .  Tell  the  lady 
that  I  feel  it  to  be  very  long  since  I  had  a  line  from  her. 
This  with  my  best  regards. — Yours  ever  most  truly,  with 
all  good  wishes,  T.  Erskine. 


320  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1S55. 


177.    TOM.  ADOLPHE  MONOD. 

21  Charlotte  Square,  Edinburgh, 
1Uh  Dec.  1855. 

Beloved  Feiend  and  Brother  in  Christ, — I  thank 
our  God  for  you  and  myself  and  all  men,  for  that  eternal 
purpose  of  grace  which  he  hath  purposed  in  Christ,  towards 
us,  in  bringing  us  into  being,  that  we  might  be  partakers  of 
the  divine  nature,  that  we  might  know  His  will  and  find  it 
to  be  eternal  life.  I  thank  Him  that  He  has  given  us  His 
Son  to  be  our  permanent  eternal  Head,  through  whom 
we  have  continual  access  to  Him,  and  continual  return  to 
Him  after  all  our  wanderings,  through  Avhom  you  have 
strength  given  you  to  drink  the  bitter  cup  put  into  your 
hand,  and  to  find  it  water  of  life.  "  I  in  them,  and  Thou 
in  Me,  that  they  may  be  made  perfect  in  one "  is  the 
prayer  of  our  Head  for  us,  the  prayer  of  Him  whom  the 
Father  heareth  alway.  May  you,  my  brother,  unceasingly 
experience  the  answer  to  this  prayer.  May  you  feel  the 
reality  of  that  union  ever  growing  and  strengthening  by 
all  the  sufferings  which  He  sees  fit  to  appoint  for  you. 
God  is  love.     Love  is  the  divine  nature. 

What  a  sight  shall  we  have  when  our  eyes  are  fully 
opened !  But  we  can  only  be  partakers  of  that  divine 
nature,  we  can  only  become  capable  of  that  vision  of  love, 
by  an  entire  submission,  by  consenting  to  be  receivers. 
And  that  last  lesson,  I  believe,  He  is  now  teaching  you 
by  this  suffering.  You  have  been  always  a  blessing  to  me, 
a  good  gift  from  God  to  my  soul.  I  hope  to  know  you 
and  to  love  you  for  ever.  Now,  He  teaches  us  to  love  by 
ministering  to  us  through  each  other !  Farewell,  brother 
beloved. — Ever  affectionately  yours,  T.  Erskine. 

My  sisters  join  their  affectionate  sympathy  with  mine, 


*T.  67.  REV.  J.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL.  321 

with  regard  to  yourself,  dear  friend,  and  also  with  regard 
to  your  family,  especially  dear  Madame  MonocL 

178.    TO  THE  REV.  THOMAS  WEIGHT  MATHEWS. 

21  Charlotte  Square,  13th  Feb.  1S56. 
Dear  Friend, — .  ...  I  have  been  reading  Mr.  Camp- 
bell's book  on  the  Nature  of  the  Atonement  with  great  in- 
terest and  sympathy.  It  is  full  of  precious  spiritual  thought 
expressed  in  a  form  more  adapted  to  the  generality  of  minds 
(especially  in  this  country  of  Scotland,  and  the  dissenting 
English  churches)  than  Maurice's  books.  I  think  it  will 
influence  public  opinion  considerably  on  the  great  subject 
which  it  treats.  It  deals  so  lovingly  with  those  whose 
theories  it  condemns,  and  founds  its  judgment  on  principles 
which  a  spiritually-minded  man  cannot  but  consent  to.  .  .  . 

179.    TO  THE  REV.  J.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL. 

21  Charlotte  Square,  22d  Feb.  1856. 
Dear  Mr.  Campbell, — I  am  afraid  that  you  will  find 
it  difficult  to  exculpate  me,  in  my  protracted  silence,  of 
forgetting  that  there  is  a  righteous  life  in  man's  favour 
which  it  is  righteous  to  desire,  and  which  it  is  therefore 
unrighteous  to  withhold.  But  I  have  been  anxious  to  read 
all  the  book1  with  my  own  eyes,  and  to  read  and  consciously 
understand  every  clause  of  it,  that  I  might  be  able  really 
to  testify  to  you  the  immense  amount  of  thankful  sympathy 
that  I  have  felt  with  the  book,  and  the  spirit  of  its  author. 
I  have  only  arrived  at  the  324th  page,  and  thus  have  not 
the  right  to  speak  of  the  whole  book,  but  the  chapter  which 
I  am  reading  has  such  a  character  of  winding  up  and  re- 
capitulation in  it,  that  I  permit  myself  to  anticipate  a  day, 
in  which  I  expect  to  terminate  my  reading.  I  wish  I  had 
noted  down  as  I  went  along  the  passages  or  topics  which 
1  The  Nature  0/ the  Atonement,  by  J.  M'Leod  Campbell. 
X 


322  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1856. 

more  especially  struck  or  pleased  me,  but  this  I  have  done 
very  imperfectly,  and  only  marking  pages  and  not  subjects. 

You  have  been  most  happy  in  finding,  in  such  a  univer- 
sally recognised  Calvinistic  authority  as  Edwards,  the  basis 
of  your  great  argument.  This  will  give  your  book  an  ad- 
vantage which  it  could  not  have  had  by  any  mere  address 
to  reason  and  conscience. 

Your  intellectual  type  is  also,  in  a  certain  measure,  re- 
cognisable as  national,  and  must  attract  in  this  country 
much  more  assent  than  Maurice's  works. 

The  intercession  of  Christ  you  have,  I  think,  specially 
well  illustrated — the  very  righteousness  of  Christ  in 
humanity,  presenting  a  hope  to  the  Father's  mind  for  all 
the  humanity,  being  a  manifestation  of  its  capacities.  The 
10th  chapter,  and  those  that  follow  it,  connecting  the  his- 
torical detail  of  our  Lord's  life  and  sufferings  with  the  prin- 
ciple of  atonement,  are  excellent,  as  is  the  chapter  on  the 
necessary  nature  of  salvation.  I  had  hoped  to  write  a  long 
letter,  but  I  am  obliged  to  stop.  I  think  and  hope  that 
this  work  is  to  produce  much  fruit,  by  the  blessing  of  God. 
.  .  .  . — Yours  ever  affectionately,  T.  Erskine. 

180.    TO  MADAME  DE  STAEL. 

9th  May  1856. 
Dear  Friend, — So  Adolphe  Monod  has  ceased  to  be 
seen  of  men.  II  a  "  passe  au  Pere."  I  had  known  and  loved 
him  for  many  years,  and  I  can  well  understand  the  void 
which  his  death  will  occasion  amongst  his  friends  in  Paris. 
His  loss  as  a  Christian  minister  is  also  very  great,  and  not 
easily  to  be  supplied.  His  ability  as  a  preacher,  though 
rare,  was  yet  not  so  rare  as  the  inward  character  of  his 
spirit,  his  deep  and  tender  love,  his  unselfishness,  his  un- 
worldliness,  his  noble  transparency,  his  candour,  which 
always  disposed  him  to  give  their  full  weight  to  ideas  dif- 


mt.  67.  FROM  ADOLPHE  MONOD.  323 

feriug  from  his  own,  and  at  the  same  time  his  faithfulness, 
which  kept  him  from  any  compromise  of  truth.  Jesus 
wept  at  the  grave  of  Lazarus  to  show  us  the  mind  of  God 
in  such  circumstances.  It  is  wonderful  to  think  that  He, 
who  no  doubt  wept  at  the  grave  of  Adolphe  Monod,  should 
yet  have  seen  it  needful  to  lay  such  a  weight  of  suffering 
on  his  last  days.  I  feel  that  it  could  only  have  been  an 
infinite  love  contemplating  an  infinitely  glorious  result  that 
could  have  inflicted  that  suffering.  Two  or  three  months 
before,  I  had  received  a  letter  written  to  his  dictation  (by 
his  daughter,  I  suppose),  but  signed  by  himself,  and  ad- 
dressed to  Charles  Scholl  of  Lausanne,  Gaussen  of  Geneva, 
and  to  me,  as  three  friends  who  had  been  specially  used  by 
God  as  helps  to  him  in  his  spiritual  life.  .  .  . 

This  remarkable  letter,  having  passed  through  the  hands 
of  MM.  Scholl  and  Gaussen,  was  left  finally  in  the 
custody  of  Mr.  Erskine.  This  was  done  by  Monod's  own 
direction.  His  family  have  kindly  given  permission  for 
its  publication  : — 

A  MM.  GAUSSEN,  SCHOLL,  ET  ERSKINE. 

Paris,  ler  Decembre  1855. 
Il  y  a  trois  amis  dont  j'aime  a  associer  les  noms,  pour  la 
part  considerable  qu'ils  out  eue  tous  trois,  en  des  temps,  et 
a  des  titres  divers,  a  la  conversion  de  mon  ame.  Je  veux 
lour  rendre  temoignage  de  ma  reconnaissance,  aujourd'hui 
que  je  m' attends  a  passer  bientot  de  ce  monde  au  Pere,  et 
que  je  puise  toutes  mes  consolations  dans  la  foi  qu'ils 
m'ont  apprise.  Ces  sont  Louis  Gaussen,  Charles  Scholl,  et 
Thomas  Erskine.  Le  premier  a  opere  lenteraent  sur  mon 
esprit  par  son  commerce  bienveillant,  par  sa  predication, 
par  ses  exemples,  et  par  ses  pieux  entretiens  de  Salignj^. 
Le  second  m'a  presents  l'Evangile  dans  des  entrevues 
plus    courtes,    sous    un   aspect   pratique,    si    aimable,   et 


324  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1855. 

en  meme  temps  si  sage  et  si  vrai,  qu'il  lui  a  gagne 
mon  cceur.  Le  troisieme  a  Geneve  a  deracine"  mes  pre- 
juges  intellectuels  en  reconciliant  dans  mon  esprit  l'evan- 
gile  avec  la  saine  philosophie ;  apres  quoi  a  Naples  il  a 
mis  la  derniere  main  a  l'ceuvre  autaut  que  cela  dependait 
de  1'homme,  en  eclairant  et  tout  ensemble  en  achevant 
d'attrister  ma  melancolie  par  le  contraste  de  sa  paix  par- 
faite  et  de  sa  tendre  charite.  Je  n'oublierai  jamais  nos 
promenades  de  Capo  di  Monte,  ni  1' accent  dont  il  me 
disait,  a  la  vue  du  soleil  se  couchant  sur  le  magnifique 
bassin  de  Naples  :  "  Truly  the  light  is  sweet,  and  a  pleasant 
thing  it  is  for  the  eyes  to  behold  the  sun."  Ces  trois  amis 
n'ont  pas  6te  seuls  a  travailler  pour  mon  ame,  comment 
oublierais-je  ce  que  la  fidelit6  de  Fr6d6ric  a  6te  pour  nous 
tous,  et  ce  qu'a  fait  pour  moi  1' humble  et  prudente 
Jeannette  Picerari,  sans  parler  d'autres  amis  dans  ma 
famille  ou  au  dehors  a  Geneve  et  ailleurs  !  Mais  les  trois 
amis  auxquels  j'adresse  ces  lignes  ont  ete"  appel^s  de  Dieu 
a  exercer  sur  moi  une  influence  combinee  dans  laquelle  ils 
se  completaient  mutuellement,  sans  le  savoir.  Je  com- 
mence par  donner  toute  gloire  a  Dieu,  et  puis  je  leur  dis  a 
eux-memes  de  quel  amour  je  suis  penetre  pour  eux,  et  de 
quel  cceur  je  demande  a  Dieu  de  les  tenir  de  ses  benedic- 
tions les  plus  precieuses  dans  la  vie  et  dans  la  mort  en  leur 
epargnant,  s'il  est  possible,  la  fournaise  par  laquelle  sa 
misericorde  me  fait  passer.  En  meme  temps  je  me 
recommande  a  leurs  prieres,  pour  qu'ils  couronnent  le  bien 
qu'ils  m'ont  fait  en  demandant  pour  moi  la  grace  de  ne  pas 
laisser  6chapper  ma  patience,  et  de  glorifier  Dieu  jusqu'au 
bout  de  mon  combat  en  proportion  de  l'amertume  de  mes 
douleurs. 

Je  prie  Gaussen  de  faire  passer  cette  lettre  a  Scholl,  et 
Scholl  a  Erskine ;  ce  sera  comme  un  lien  de  plus  entre  eux, 
comme  entre  chacun  d'eux  et  moi,  dans  l'amour  de  Christ. 

Adolphe  Mo  nod. 


>et.  67.  REV.  J.  UPLEOD  CAMPBELL.  325 


CHAPTER   XV. 

Letters  from  1856  till  1862. 

The  event  of  this  period  was  the  death  of  Captain 
Paterson.  So  long  as  the  two  families  lived  together  at 
Linlathen  he  had  contributed  scarcely  less  than  Mrs.  Stirling 
to  the  management  and  the  amenities  of  that  happy  home, 
and  ever  afterwards  it  was  a  most  brotherly  relationship 
that  existed  betwixt  him  and  Mr.  Erskine.  It  was  his 
rare  self-abnegation — a  heart  more  than  ordinarily  at 
leisure  from  itself, — which  gave  him  such  a  hold  upon 
all  connected  with  him. 

181.    TO  THE  REV.  J.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL. 

Monday,  Sept.  1,  1856. 
Our  beloved  friend  and  brother  Captain  Paterson  died 
this  morning.  My  sister  and  I  received  the  information  on 
Saturday  that  he  was  worse,  and  we  lost  no  time  in  coming 
to  the  scene  of  sorrow.  We  arrived  between  four  and  five 
o'clock,  and  found  that  an  oppression  on  the  brain  had 
already  begun,  and  was  thus  making  the  mortal  struggle 
much  more  painful  to  surrounding  friends.  The  fearful 
conflict  between  life  and  death  had  been  going  on  since 
Friday,  and  it  continued  with  terrible  violence  till  this 
morning  a  little  after  eight  o'clock.  There  were  occasional 
sweet   recognitions  and   expressions   of  love    unutterable, 


326  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1856. 

especially  to  his  wife  and  son,  also  to  Mrs.  Stirling  and  my- 
self, and  sometimes  words  and  looks  which  betokened  the 
highest  things.  His  natural  vigour  made  the  struggle  terri- 
fically severe.  But  we  knew  him,  and  had  long  known  him 
as  one  of  the  most  humble  and  most  faithful  of  our  Chris- 
tian brotherhood.1  All  who  knew  him  knew  this,  and  will 
feel  the  loss  severely;  but  to  his  wife,  to  whom  since  their 
union  he  had  been  the  most  affectionate  of  husbands,  the 
loss  is  of  a  character  which  nothing  but  her  knowledge  of 
the  purpose  of  Him  who  made  them  and  joined  them,  and 
who  had  led  them  through  all  the  events  of  their  pilgrim- 
age, could  make  supportable.  The  first  words  she  spoke 
after  the  spirit  had  escaped  from  the  body  were  words  of 
thankfulness.  How  precious  is  the  knowledge  of  Him  who 
hath  overcome  death,  and  Him  who  hath  the  power  of 
death !  and  as  His  victory  was  through  death,  so  He  leads 
us  by  the  same  way. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  believe  that  He  had  deepest  sym- 
pathy with  His  servant  during  these  dark  hours,  and  that 
He  had  not  real  communion  with  him,  although  the  lower 
nature  had  no  participation  in  it.  Oh  friend,  pray  for  us 
that  we  may  gain  from  this  sorrow  all  that  our  Father  in- 
tends for  us.  .  .  .  You  will  write  to  her ;  you  know  how 
she  values  your  sympathy. — Ever  affectionately  yours, 

T.  Erskine. 

182.    TO  THE  REV.  J.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL. 

LlNLATHEN,  2(1  Oct.  1856. 

My  dear  Brother, — Somehow  or  other  Maurice's  letter 

1  "Pour  35  ans  il  avait  ete  un  membre  de  notre  famille,  comme  s'il 
l'avait  ete  par  naissance.  C'etait  un  homme  d'une  simplicity  et  loyaute 
de  caractere  parfait,  tendre  a  sa  femme,  et  affectueiix  a  Madame  Stirling 
et  moi,  et  a  tons  nos  parents,  et  surtout  le  coeur  droit  envers  Dieu  son 
Sauveur." — Extract  from  letter  to  M.  Cramer  Mallet. 


/et.  68.  LADY  CAROLINE  CHARTER  IS.  327 

has  been  lost,  which  I  regret,  chiefly  because  I  cannot  give 
you  the  words  in  which  he  expresses  himself  on  the  subject 
of  your  book.  His  commendation  of  it  however  is  very 
high  for  its  reach  of  thought,  its  logical  development  of 
thought,  and  the  wise  and  loving  candour  of  its  judgment 
of  other  views.  He  is  not  particular  in  what  he  says  of  it, 
and  I  almost  hope  that  he  may  have  written  to  yourself 
about  it.1  .  .  . 

I  am  reading  Plato  occasionally  with  exceeding  interest.2 
Surely  the  spirit  of  Socrates  saw  a  great  light,  and  he  was 
faithful  to  his  light.  If  he  had  lived  at  the  time  of  Paul's 
visit  to  Athens,  I  feel  assured  that  he  would  have  embraced 
the  Gospel,  and  then  what  interesting  dialogues  we  should 
have  had  !  .  .  . — Ever  affectionately  yours, 

T.  Erskine. 


183.    TO  LADY  CAROLINE  CHARTERIS. 

Lixlathen,  27th  Oct.  1856 

Dear  Lady  Caroline, — I  am  very  much  obliged  to 
you  for  the  kind  thought  of  sending  me  Us  admix  of  my 
dear  and  admirable  friend  Adolphe  Monod.     The  sketch 

1  This  letter  was  afterwards  recovered.  In  it  Mr.  Maurice  says  : — "I 
have  wished  to  write  to  you  about  many  things,  especially  about  Mr. 
Campbell's  beautiful  and  profoundly  interesting  book.  ...  It  was  all 
and  more  than  all  1  had  expected.  The  serenity  of  it  and  his  sympathy 
with  those  who  differed  from  him  were  the  qualities  in  it  which  struck  me 
most,  and  made  me  most  ashamed,  though  I  fully  recognised  its  logical 
power,  and  its  grasp  of  that  which  is  above  and  beneath  all  logic." 

2  "  His  literary  tastes  were  very  refined.  Shakespeare  was  his  favourite 
author  among  the  moderns,  and  to  hear  Mr.  Erskine  quoting  Shakespeare 
was  no  ordinary  treat.  His  favourites  among  the  ancients  were  Homer 
and  Plato.  He  read  the  Iliad  through  continuously,  finishing  about  the 
year  1838.  Plato  engaged  much  of  his  leisure  time  during  the  rest  of  his 
life.  On  one  occasion  the  I'haedo  having  been  referred  to,  he  read  it  over, 
he  said,  while  at  Naples." — (Extract  from  letter  of  Dr.  Richard  Low  of 
Broughty  Ferry,  who  knew  Mr.  Erskine  well,  and  to  whom  he  was  warmly 
attached.) 


328  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1857. 

of  him  is  exceedingly  like,  and  gives  the  idea  of  perfect 
peace  and  patience  under  intense  suffering.  I  think  that 
portrait  is  one  of  the  best  sermons  in  the  volume.  .  .  . 
I  think  it  probable  you  may  before  now  have  heard  of 
our  loss.  Captain  Paterson  was  removed  from  this  world 
in  the  end  of  August.  He  was  a  faithful,  affectionate  man. 
He  had  been  married  thirty-five  years,  and  had  adopted 
all  our  family  connections,  and  had  been  adopted  by  them, 
as  fully  as  if  he  had  been  of  our  own  blood.  He  had  suf- 
fered a  great  deal  for  the  last  few  months ;  but  he  knew 
the  purpose  of  God,  and  I  doubt  not  received  a  large 
blessing  through  his  sufferings.  His  loss  to  us  all  is  very 
great,  especially  to  his  wife,  than  whom  no  woman  ever 
had  a  more  devoted  or  affectionate  husband.  .  .  . — Yours 
ever  truly,  T.  Erskine. 

184.    TO  THOMAS  CARLYLE,  ESQ. 

38  Charlotte  Squake,  \Wi  April  1857. 
Dear  Mr.  Carlyle, — The  sight  of  your  well-known 
handwriting  was  a  real  joy  to  me.  I  have  felt  the  long 
interruption  of  all  direct  communication,  and  had  often 
purposed  writing  to  you  or  to  Mrs.  Carlyle,  but  had  from 
day  to  day  deferred  it  as  the  manner  of  man  is.  This  was 
the  more  inexcusable  as  I  had  heard  from  worthy  Mrs. 
Braid1  that  Mrs.  Carlyle,  in  whom  she  takes  a  mother's 
interest,  had  been  ill.  I  am  glad  that  she  is  now  better, 
and  in  a  condition  to  benefit  by  what  of  spring  or  summer 
may  be  before  us.  I  really  hope  that  the  next  visit  you 
pay  to  Scotland  you  will  come  to  us,  and  before  that  time 
I  trust  that  this  weary  Fritz  may  be  off  your  conscience 
and  thrown  on  the  consciences  of  other  men,  as  incentive 
or  warning  as  the  truth  of  the  matter  may  make  him.     I 

1  A  remarkable  woman,  an  old  nurse  of  Mrs.  Carlyle,  living  near  Edin- 
burgh, whom  Mr.  Erskine  frequently  visited. 


MRS.  SCHWA  BE.  829 


suppose  that  he  shows  us  what  a  strong  will  and  a  clear 
insight  without  a  conscience  can  do  for  a  man.  To  me  it 
is  a  most  unpleasing  spectacle — a  German  king  confining 
his  kinghood  to  leading  armies,  and  extending  frontiers 
and  setting  up  par  gout  as  a  French  wit  and  a  ribald  free- 
thinker. I  would  much  rather  be  honest  Mrs.  Braid 
selling  flour  and  bacon,  and  lovingly  bearing  the  burden  of 
her  bed-rid  son. 

Yes,  dear  Mr.  Carlyle,  friends  are  getting  fewer  and 
fewer.  Here  I  have  scarcely  one  now  out  of  my  own  imme- 
diate relations  in  whom  I  have  the  confidence  of  thorough 
intimacy  except  James  Mackenzie,  whose  memory  goes 
back  and  whose  hope  goes  forward  in  pleasant  music.  Our 
University  here  narrowly  missed  getting  Scott  for  Professor 
of  Logic  the  other  day,  which  I  greatly  lament  both  for 
her  sake  and  ours.  I  believe  the  Free  Kirk  bears  the  sin 
of  it. 

My  sisters,  especially  Mrs.  Paterson,  are  and  have  been 
rather  weakly.  The  loss  in  that  house  won't  soon  be  for- 
gotten. They  think  of  you  both  with  real  affection,  as  I 
do. — Ever  truly  yours,  T.  Erskine. 

185.    TO  MRS.  SCHWABE. 

Linlathen,  9lh  Sept.  1857- 
My  dear  Mrs.  S., — I  have  read  the  sermon  of  Mr. 
Martineau  which  you  wished  me  to  read,  with  deep 
interest  and  much  sympathy.  I  have  felt  along  with 
him  what  a  hopeless,  desolate  state  men  would  be  in, 
were  they  necessitated  to  scream  out  their  wants  and 
sorrows  to  a  being  separated  from  them  by  an  impass- 
able gulf;  and  I  have  also  felt  what  a  deadly  chill  it  throws 
over  the  universe  to  substitute  eternal  laws  for  an  infinite 
Father.  I  have  indeed  found  that  the  only  deliverance  for 
man  lies  in  the  living  union  of  God  with  humanity,  and 


330  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1S57. 

not  an  historical  matter,  but  an  eternal  spiritual  order.  If 
Christianity  be  true,  it  must  be  the  only  real  natural 
religion,  that  is,  it  must  explain  all  the  true  spiritual  and 
moral  consciousness  within  us,  just  as  the  theory  of  New- 
ton, if  true,  must  explain  all  the  phenomena  of  the  heavenly 
bodies.  The  fact  of  conscience  is  the  great  spiritual  fact 
in  man's  nature.  "Well,  what  is  conscience  1  Is  it  merely 
part  and  parcel  of  myself  ]  Christianity  says  that  it  is  the 
presence  of  God's  light,  and  life,  and  love,  met  by  a  spiri- 
tual capacity  in  us  of  apprehending  it ;  and  that  it  is  there 
not  as  a  spy  or  as  a  taskmaster,  but  as  a  loving  guide,  and 
helper,  and  comforter — that  it  is  the  divine  spirit  of  son- 
ship,  to  assure  us  of  the  unchangeable  fatherliness  of  God's 
purpose  towards  us,  and  to  accomplish  that  purpose  in  all 
who  will  yield  themselves  to  it,  making  them  indeed  sons 
of  God.  This  presence  dwells  in  each  of  us,  connecting  us 
with  each  other,  and  connecting  all  with  God ;  thus  we  are 
all  specimens  of  that  wonderful  combination,  God  and  man 
united,  the  divine  element  issuing  out  of  God  into  us  all, 
not  direct  from  the  great  Father,  but  modified  by  passing 
through  a  human  heart,  and  thus  full  of  all  holy  human 
sympathies ;  that  human  heart  is  the  heart  of  Jesus,  the 
head  and  root  of  the  race,  our  elder  brother,  like  us,  yet 
differing  from  us  in  this,  that  in  us  is  seen  the  humanity 
indwelt  by  God,  in  Him  is  seen  God  assuming  the  humanity. 
He  has  passed  through  human  life  and  human  death  bearing 
all  our  burdens — the  burden  of  our  sins  and  the  burden  of 
our  sorrows — the  true  Saviour,  the  true  King,  connected 
with  every  individual  of  the  race,  not  only  by  a  bond  of 
love,  but  a  bond  of  relation  of  brotherhood,  a  bond  which 
can  never  be  broken.  He  presents  to  us  our  Father's  char- 
acter, He  presents  to  the  Father  His  own  accomplished 
idea  and  purpose  in  the  creation  of  man ;  He  stands  in 
that  relation  to  us,  that  He  may  make  us  like-minded  to 


MT.  68.  MRS.  SCHWABE.  331 

Himself;  that  is,  that  He  may  bring  our  wills  into  confor- 
mity with  the  Father's,  not  that  they  should  be  lost  in  that 
highest  will,  but  that  they  may  become  loving  and  intelli- 
gent recipients  of  it.  Thus  only  can  the  desire  of  God  for 
man  be  accomplished;  for  thus  only  can  man  become  a 
partaker  of  God's  life,  of  God's  blessedness  ;  and  all  this 
without  the  danger  of  self-exaltation,  for  man  is  to  continue 
always  a  receiver.  There  is,  in  my  mind,  something  un- 
speakably sweet,  and  loving,  and  righteous  in  this  consti- 
tution of  things. 

God  does  not  give  us  each  a  private  stock  of  wisdom 
and  strength,  by  which  we  may  work  out  an  independent 
righteousness,  on  which  we  may  stand  and  negotiate  with 
Him  and  our  fellow-creatures,  but  He  creates  us  with  a 
capacity  of  receiving  or  rejecting,  and  thus  maintaining  our 
moral  responsibility,  and  then  He  wells  out  of  His  own 
infinite  fulness  the  supply  of  all  our  needs,  thus  imparting 
to  all  His  gifts  the  character  of  loving  fellowship,  like  that 
father  in  the  parable  who  said,  Son,  thou  art  ever  with  me, 
and  all  that  I  have  is  thine — were  I  to  give  you  an  inde- 
pendent provision  it  would  break  this  loving  bond.  One 
feels  too  that  it  is  righteous  that  the  fountain  should  be 
acknowledged  as  the  fountain ;  and  thus  we  see  that  there 
is  nothing  arbitrary  in  the  declaration  that  faith  is  man'- 
righteousness.  Faith  means  dependence,  recipiency,  and 
that  assuredly  is  the  only  right  place  for  man  to  occupy, 
and  thus  only  can  he  rise  out  of  the  religion  of  obedience 
into  the  religion  of  communion,  as  Mr.  Martineau  happily 
expresses  it.  .  .  . 

Dear  friend,  I  must  ask  you  not  to  show  this  letter  to 
any  one,  but  just  to  keep  it  in  your  own  thought  and  con- 
science. I  have  written  it  without  any  care,  and  on  look- 
ing it  over  I  see  that  it  is  not  very  accurate  or  logical,  but 
that  may  pass  with  a  friend ;  I  believe  it  to  be  true. 


332  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1857. 


186.    TO  MRS.  BLACKWELL. 

Lixlathen,  10/7i  Sept.  1857. 

My  dear  Friend, — . . .  You  will  have  heard  of  dear  Lady 
Matilda's1  sudden  departure,  and  I  am  sure  that  you  would 
think  of  us  as  fellow-mourners  with  her  own  family.  She 
was  a  shining  light,  and  many  rejoiced  in  her  light,  receiv- 
ing guidance  and  consolation  from  her.  It  would  be  well 
for  us  if  we  could  learn  to  trust  God  as  we  trust  those  of 
our  fellow-creatures  whom  we  really  believe  to  be  good 
and  loving.  We  could  all  name  individuals,  alive  or  dead, 
in  whose  love  for  us  we  had  such  confidence,  that  we  should 
feel  satisfied  that  our  eternal  interests  would  be  quite  safe 
in  their  hands,  if  they  had  only  wisdom  and  power  enough. 
If  we  believed  that  they  had  the  requisite  wisdom  and  power, 
we  should  receive  every  appointment,  painful  or  otherwise, 
with  perfect  acquiescence,  knowing  that  it  must  be  for  our 
true  good.  My  daily  endeavour  is  to  learn  this  same  lesson 
in  relation  to  God.  I  am  sure  He  created  me  and  all  men 
to  be  partakers  in  His  own  eternal  life.  This  I  believe 
is  contained  in  the  truth  that  He  created  us  in  Christ. 
Now  this  purpose  of  God  I  believe  to  be  unchangeable,  and 
that  He  will  follow  it  on,  until  it  be  accomplished.  The 
Shepherd  goes  after  the  lost  sheep  until  he  finds  it.  I  am 
persuaded  that  this  is  an  eternal  truth,  and  the  only  founda- 
tion on  which  a  man  who  feels  himself  a  sinner — self- 
destroyed — can  lay  himself  down  all  his  length  in  absolute 
trust.  .  .  . 

Do  not  be  afraid  of  what  I  have  written,  my  dear  friend. 
It  is  good  news,  but  not  too  good  to  be  true.  It  is  the 
triumph  of  truth,  and  holiness,  and  love.     It  is  the  victory 

1  Lady  Matilda  Brace,  second  daughter  of  Thomas,  seventh  Earl  of  Elgin, 
became,  in  1839,  the  wife  of  Sir  John  Maxwell,  Bart.,  of  Pollok. 


V 


XV.  69.  MR.  MAURICE.  333 

of  Him  who  says  to  us,  "  Be  not  overcome  of  evil,  but  over- 
come evil  with  good." — Ever  affectionately  yours, 

T.  Erskine. 

187.    TO  LADY  CAROLINE  CHARTERIS. 

Linlathen,  19<A  Sept.  1857. 
Yes,  dear  Lady  Caroline,  we  cannot  doubt  but  that  her 
removal  from  this  world  was  an  entrance  into  a  happier 
and  brighter  state,  yet  the  loss  to  those  who  were  used  to 
lean  on  her  and  to  get  counsel  and  comfort  from  her  must 
be  great.  I  have  almost  never  known  any  one  so  univer- 
sally approved  of,  by  persons  of  all  descriptions,  and 
certainly  few  have  possessed  so  many  loving  and  admiring 
friends.  All  who  knew  her  loved  her,  and  looked  to  her 
as  something  above  the  common  reach  of  humanity.  Dear 
Sir  John  must  indeed  be  very  desolate.  I  can  realise 
those  looks  asking  for  sympathy  and  acknowledging  it 
when  given.  I  am  glad  that  W.  Stirling  has  such  a 
mission  given  to  him.  It  is  good  for  the  heart  to  try  to 
heal  such  wounds,  to  soothe  such  sorrows.  He  loved  and 
prized  her  well,  and  he  must  feel  that  any  consolation 
which  can  reach  his  uncle's  heart  at  this  time  must  come 
from  behind  the  veil.  .  .  .     Farewell,  dear  friend. 

T.  Erskine. 

188.    TO  MR.  MAURICE. 

Linlathen,  24£A  Nov.  1857. 
My  dear  Friend, — It  is  a  long  time  since  I  have  had 
direct  communication  with  you.  I  am  now,  however,  im- 
pelled to  send  you  a  word  by  the  grateful  feelings  produced 
by  reading  your  sermons  for  the  day  of  humiliation  and 
the  following  Sunday.  I  rejoice  to  read  such  things,  and 
to  know  that  they  must  be  read  by  many.  I  wish  our 
missionaries  could  read  and  understand  them,  that  they 


334  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1858. 

might  not  weary  themselves  by  attempting  to  displace  one 
set  of  dogmas  and  substitute  another,  but  that  they  might 
commend  themselves  to  every  man's  conscience  in  the  sight 
of  God,  by  declaring  the  common  Father,  who  is  drawing 
all  men  into  fellowship  with  Himself  by  that  true  light 
which  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world.     If 
/  they  claimed  all  honesty  and  truthfulness  and  kindness — 
I  every  act  of  self-sacrificing  generosity  and  uprightness — as 
\  Christianity,  they  could  not  fail  meeting  a  response  in  every 
heart.     They  speak  of  traces  of  humanity  being  most  visible 
in   all  faiths  and  forms — why  not  say  that  humanity  is 
Christianity  1     For  what  else  is  it  1     Were  there  not  that 
I  true  light  in  man,  were  not  the  Son  of  God  in  him,  where 
I  would  his  humanity  be?     And  this,  every  man  who  feels 
the  difference  between  himself  and  the  brutes  is  not  only 
capable  of  apprehending,  but  has  a  latent  desire  to  appre- 
hend.    "Thou  hearest  His  voice,  but  thou  knowest  not 
whence  it  cometh  and  whither  it  leadeth."     And  this  great 
explanation  is  the  charm  which  frees  the  man  from  his 
fears  and  selfishness  and  slavery  to  visible  things.     If  Christ 
be^that  Word,  that  Light,  then  everything  according  with 
them    is    Christianity — not  like    Christianity,  but    actual 
Christianity. 

I  am  glad  to  think  that  your  trumpet  gives  no  uncertain 
sound.  When  shall  we  begin  to  realise  that  Christianity 
is  not  a  religion  got  up  either  by  God  or  man ;  but  that  it 
is  the  practical  acknowledgment  of  man's  actual  condition 
as  a  spiritual  being,  of  God's  mind  towards  him,  and  of  the 
relation  in  which  he  stands  to  God  and  to  his  fellow- 
creatures  1  .  .  .     Ever  yours  affectionately, 

T.  Erskine. 

189.    TO  MR.  MAURICE. 

3S  Charlotte  Square,  6  Jan.  185S. 
My  dear  Mr.  Maurice, — Your  Christian  Ethics,  for 


jet.  69.  LADY  CAROLINE  CHARTERS  335 

which  I  have  to  give  you  most  earnest  though  tardy  thanks, 
have  been  full  of  interest  to  me — good  seed  I  should  say, 
which  I  hope  may  hear  good  fruit  in  many  hearts.  I  de- 
sire to  know  more  and  more  the  importance  of  learning 
Christ,  rather  than  Christianity ;  the  living,  loving  almighty 
Lord  of  our  spirits,  rather  than  the  logic  about  Him.  I 
have  also  to  thank  you  for  the  sermons  on  India.  I  admire 
your  unexhausted  prolificness,  and  the  beautiful  ordering 
of  the  ev  and  the  iroXka  through  your  creation.  .  .  . — 
Ever  affectionately  yours,  T.  Erskine. 

190.    TO  MRS.  BURNETT. 

Linlathex,  13  Sept.  1858. 
We  have  had  Mr.  M'Murtrie1  with  us  for  some  days,  and 
have  been  much  pleased  with  his  gentle,  earnest  ways.  I 
have  heard  him  once,  and  I  trust  that  he  may  be  a 
spiritual  awakener  and  helper  to  many.  We  have  had  a 
great  deal  of  conversation  on  the  great  subjects  on  which 
a  minister  has  to  instruct  his  hearers,  and  he  seems  to  feel 
deeply  that  he  cannot  instruct  others  in  anything  which 
his  own  heart  has  not  learned  first  itself. 

191.  TO  LADY  CAROLINE  CHARTERIS. 

Linlatiien,  Qth  Oct.  1858.2 

Dear   Lady  Caroline, —  .  .  „  Poor  Dean  Ramsay ! 

He  is  a  kindly,  sociable  man,  and  he  must  feel  his  loneliness 

very  much,  and  at  present  these  painful  disputes  and  trials 

amongst  our  Episcopalian   clergy  must  harass  his  mind. 

1  Mr.  Robertson's  successor  as  minister  of  the  parish  of  Mains,  now  of 
Edinburgh. 

2  "1858  was  a  sad  year  for  the  Dean.  Mrs.  Ramsay  had  been  very  ill, 
and  siuking  in  strength  and  spirit  till  on  the  23d  July  the  afflicted  husband 
makes  this  entry  :  '  It  pleased  God  to  visit  me  with  the  deep  and  terrible 
affliction  of  taking  away  my  friend,  companion,  and  adviser  of  twenty-nine 
years.'" — Memoirs  of  Dean  Ramsay,  by  Cosmo  Innes,  p.  48. 


336  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSK1NE.  1859. 

Our  bishop  here  did,  I  think,  much  evil  in  stirring  the 
question,1  which  I  believe  in  the  minds  of  many  people 
means  just  nothing  at  all.  The  consecration  of  the  bread  and 
wine  cannot  mean  changing  their  nature,  but  simply  using 
them  in  worship — using  them,  according  to  the  last  instruc- 
tions of  our  Lord,  in  remembrance  of  Him.  Faith  means 
trust  in  our  Father's  loving  purpose  towards  us  in  Jesus 
Christ,  that  we  should  be  the  living  members  of  His  body, 
partakers  of  the  Divine  nature.  This  is  a  faith  which 
saves  us  from  fear  and  worldliness  and  selfishness  ;  and  are 
we  called  to  exchange  this  faith  for  faith  in  an  unintelligible 
mystery,  a  necromancy,  which  says  nothing  either  to  the 
reason  or  to  the  heart  1  Such  notions  must  make  many 
infidels.  I  am  going  to  Polloc  on  Friday.  I  may  perhaps 
take  a  look  of  Noel  Paton's  picture  as  I  pass  through  Edin- 
burgh. Best  regards  to  Lady  Jane.  My  sister,  Mrs.  Pater- 
son,  has  been  worse  these  last  days. — Yours  most  truly, 

T.  Ekskine. 

192.    TO  MRS.  SCHWABE. 

16  Charlotte  Square,  14th  Feb.  1859. 
Dear  Friend, — How  shall  I  tell  you  of  the  affliction  it 
has  pleased  God  to  lay  upon  us  1  Jane  Stirling  has  been 
taken  from  this  world,  doubtless  to  her  own  great  gain,  and 
doubtless  for  our  good,  could  we  understand  it  aright.  In 
the  meantime,  however,  it  is  a  deep  sorrow,  a  removal  of 
what  was  the  light  and  joy  of  many  hearts.  She  was  ill 
for  eight  weeks,  and  suffered  a  great  deal.  ...  I  know  you 
will  feel  this  deeply,  for  you  could  appreciate  the  purity  and 
beauty  of  that  stream  of  love  which  flowed  through  her 
whole  life.  I  don't  think  that  I  ever  knew  any  one  who 
seemed  more  entirely  to  have  given  up  self,  and  devoted 

1  The  question  as  to  the  Eucharist,  raised  at  this  time  in  the  Scottish 
Episcopal  Church  by  the  Bishop  of  Brechin.— See  Life  of  Bishop  Ewing. 


/ 


&t.  7o.  MR.  MAURICE.  337 

her  whole  being  to  the  good  of  others.  I  remember  her 
birth  like  yesterday,  and  I  never  saw  anything  in  her  but 
what  was  lovable  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  her 
course.  .  .  .  It  is  a  voice  to  us  out  of  the  invisible  eternity, 
which  we  ought  to  seek  to  understand. 

193.    TO  MR.  MAURICE. 

Linlathen,  2$th  Ju?ie  1859. 
My  dear  Maurice, — I  have  to  thank  you  for  the 
renewed  proof  of  your  much-valued  remembrance  of  me, 
which  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Macmillan's  packet  has  brought 
me.  I  feel  the  importance  of  your  subject,  and  hope  to  feel 
it  more  deeply,  more  practically  day  by  day.  To  live  in 
the  Spirit  is  the  right  condition  of  man,  his  normal  condi- 
tion, out  of  which  he  is  out  of  order;  and  to  live  in  the 
Spirit  is  to  live  with  God — hearing  Him,  and  knowing 
Him,  and  loving  Him,  and  delighting  to  do  His  will. 
When  I  think  how  little  I  know  of  this  order,  or  see  it 
known  by  others,  I  do  not  wonder  that  some  should  think 
that  there  is  no  such  order ;  and  yet  the  man  who  makes 
this  denial  has  occasional  thoughts  which  make  him  feel 
that  he  has  no  right  to  make  it ;  because,  if  there  is  an 
unknown  God,  there  _  is  also  an  unknown  self,  whose 
capacities  he  has  not  yet  tried  or  measured. 


"  Thou  hearest  His  voice,  but  "knowest  not  whence  it 
cometh  and  whither  it  leadcth  ;  but  he  who  is  born  of  the 
Spirit  does."  And  one  may  be  born  of  the  Spirit  for  a 
day,  and  relapse  again  into  the  abnormal  state,  and  almost 
forget  what  he  has  seen  and  known  in  that  day.  "Abide 
in  me,"  is  the  perfect  law  of  liberty.  I  think  that,  if  a  man 
has  once  felt  what  the  meaning  of  that  word  of  our  Lord  is, 
"If  thine  eye  offend  thee,"  etc.,  that  is  to  say,  if  he  has  felt 
that  there  are  things  in  him,  roots  of  evil  and  memories  of 
their  fruits,  which  must  be  cast  out — else  he  keeps  within 

Y 


338  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSK1NE.  i860. 

him  an  unquenchable  fire,  which  no  sweet,  oblivious  anti- 
dote can  ever  purge  his  bosom  of,  which  no  mere  forgive- 
ness, even  of  God,  can  rid  him  of, — he  must  also  feel  that 
he  can  only  have  deliverance  through  a  knowledge  of 
God,  which  implies  a  participation  in  the  divine  nature 
and  the  divine  righteousness. — Yours  ever  affection- 
ately, T.  Erskine. 

The  voice  of  His  judgments  is  heard  through  the  nations 
and  he  that  hath  ears  to  hear  let  him  hear. 

194.    TO  Mil.  MAURICE. 

LlNLATHEN,   DUNDEE,   15th  Nov.   I860. 

My  dear  Friend, — I  knew  Irving  a  little,  but  not 
enough  to  be  able  to  give  much  help  towards  such  a  work 
as  Mrs.  Oliphant  is  undertaking.  What  is  in  my  power, 
however,  I  shall  be  most  happy  to  do.  We  intend  to  go  to 
Edinburgh,  14  Charlotte  Square,  about  the  1st  December, 
for  the  winter.  If  she  will  call  or  send  her  address  there, 
1  shall  wait  on  her.  I  should  have  liked  to  have  seen  the 
life  of  Irving  written  by  one  who  had  known  him  per- 
sonally ;  for  all  that  ever  he  did  or  said,  although  accurately 
given,  would  be  a  very  inadequate  expression  of  Edward 
Irving.  Carlyle  and  Scott  knew  him  well,  and  have  very 
living  portraits  of  him  in  their  own  hearts.  Scott  cannot 
speak  of  him  without  becoming  Irving  in  voice  and  manner, 
even  in  countenance. 

Scott  is  to  deliver  a  course  of  lectures  in  Edinburgh  this 
winter,  and  if  his  time  coincides  with  Mrs.  Oliphant's,  she 
will  have  an  opportunity  of  talking  with  him  about  Irving, 
which  I  am  sure  will  be  very  gratifying  to  them  both. 
Dear  Mr.  Maurice,  could  you  not  be  of  the  party  1  Unless 
you  come  down,  I  cannot  look  forward  to  seeing  you  again ; 
for  I  cannot  go  to  London,  and  I  feel  that  there  are  many 
things  on  which  I  should  like  to  hear  you  speak,  and  to 


alt.  72.  REV.  ALEX.  J.  SCOTT.  339 

speak  to  you.  Yes,  this  last  year  has  been  a  wonderful 
year  for  Italy  ;  and  she  has  many  struggles  before  her  still. 
God  gave  her  a  great  gift  in  Garibaldi,  a  gift  which  will 
yet  more  be  needed,  I  doubt  not,  before  long.  The  world 
has  had  a  Eome  before,  but  never  an  Italy,  though  many 
Italians.  Will  the  fall  of  the  Vicar  lead  to  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  Lord  % — Yours  ever  affectionately, 

T.  Erskine. 

195.    TO  DR.  WYLIE  OF  CARLUKE. 

...  I  HAVE  been  reading  over  Dr.  Carlyle's  (of  Inver- 
esk)  autobiography  with  much  shame  and  disgust.  It  is 
evident  that  at  that  time  a  large  proportion  of  the  clergy 
of  Scotland  thought  it  their  chief  business  to  get  associated 
with  a  circle  of  jovial,  cheerful,  clever  companions,  with 
whom  they  might  eat  good  dinners  and  drink  good  claret 
when  they  could  get  them,  and  spend  their  lives  with  as 
little  care  and  annoyance  as  possible.  Unless  one  could 
hope  that  the  spiritual  education  of  these  people  was  to  go 
on  after  death,  one  could  see  nothing  for  them  but  the 
blackest  horror.  These  were  the  instructors  of  the  people 
of  Scotland  at  that  period  in  spiritual  things,  and  they  had 
no  conception  of  the  existence  of  a  spiritual  world,  no 
thought  of  an  actual  presence  of  God  in  them.  "  The  fool 
hath  said  in  his  heart,  There  is  no  God."  I  remember  the 
old  man,  with  his  beautiful  grey  locks ;  but  what  a  picture 
does  he  give  of  himself  and  his  friends  !  .  .  . 

196.    TO  THE  REV.  ALEX.  J.  SCOTT. 

41  Charlotte  Square,  28th  March  1SG2. 

My  dear  Friend, —  ...  I  forget  whether  you  knew 

Mr.  Cayley  ;  he  was  a  Parliamentary  friend  of  Sir  John 

Maxwell,  who  made  us  acquainted  with   him.     He  had 

been  brought  up  a  Unitarian,  and  was  a  most  intelligent 


340  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1862. 

and  amiable  man.  Sir  John  has  been  very  weakly  for 
a  long  time,  and  very  dependent  on  society.  Cayley  came 
down  to  Polloc  always  during  ihe  Parliamentary  vaca- 
tions, and  was  his  constant  companion  and  never-failing 
resource.  He  was  rather  delicate,  but  he  never  at  all 
gave  me  the  idea  of  being  near  death,  yet  soon  after 
he  had  left  this — last  month  or  in  the  end  of  January 
— for  the  purpose  of  meeting  his  constituents,  he  became 
seriously  ill  and  died.  I  cannot  tell  you  how  much 
I  was  impressed  by  him  whilst  he  was  here  in  Edin- 
burgh for  three  days,  on  his  way  south ;  he  had  a  joy 
in  God  that  filled  him  continually,  and  which  seemed  to 
astonish  himself  as  much  as  it  could  do  others.  He  had 
found  the  pearl  of  great  price.  I  have  seen  such  sights, 
but  they  are  rare.  My  sisters  would  join  in  affectionate 
regards  to  you  all. — Ever  truly  yours. 

T.  Erskine. 

197.    TO  LADY  AUGUSTA  STANLEY. 

Linlathen,  Dundee,  July  20,  1862. 

Dearly  Beloved, — I  have  read  your  kind  letter  over 
with  a  sense  of  great  unworthiness.  It  seems  to  me  almost 
like  wickedness  to  hesitate  about  accepting  an  invitation  so 
lovingly  given,  but  I  remember  that  I  am  half  way  between 
seventy  and  eighty,  and  I  have  always  a  fear  upon  me  that 
something  may  occur  which  may  make  me  a  burden  and  a 
nuisance,  and  this  feeling  not  only  deters  me  from  leaving 
home,  but  gives  me  a  certain  restlessness  when  I  break 
through  my  rule.  There  are  few  faces  that  I  like  to  see  so 
well  as  yours,  not  only  for  its  own  dear  sake,  but  because 
it  is  to  me  the  in  memoriam  of  another,  the  outward  and 
visible  sign,  as  it  were,  of  something  holy  which  has  dis- 
appeared from  this  earth  ;  so  that  it  is  from  no  lack  of  love 
that  I  decline.     The  only  time  I  ever  saw  Broomhall  was 


XT.  73.  MR.  MAURICE.  341 


very  long  ago,  long  before  you  " had  arrived"  before  even, 
I  think,  your  father  and  mother  were  married.  I  went 
there  with  one  or  two  of  my  Cardross  cousins  to  see  your 
father  and  his  three  little  girls,  whose  faces  I  remember 
well.  How  many  histories  have  commenced  and  termin- 
ated, outwardly  at  least,  since  then  ! 

198.    TO  THE  HEY.  J.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL. 

LlSLATHEN,   1st  Oct.    1862. 

I  have  been  reading  over  the  1 2th,  1 3th,  and  1 4th  of  1st 
Corinthians.  It  is  a  very  remarkable  passage.  Paul  seems 
to  have  been  almost  as  much  troubled  by  these  manifesta- 
tions as  Irving  was,  and  he  seems  to  have  escaped  by  seeing 
that  they  did  not  stand  in  that  authoritative  place  that 
Irving  ascribed  to  them.  The  19th  verse  of  the  14th 
chapter  gives  me  the  same  impression  that  I  used  to  receive 
from  a  comparison  of  the  Kow  teaching  with  the  Port- 
Glasgow  manifestations  thirty-two  years  ago.  He,  Paul, 
seems  really  to  have  set  little  store  comparatively  by  the 
manifestations  in  the  Corinthian  Church. — Ever  affection- 
ately yours,  T.  Erskine. 

199.    TO  MR.  MAURICE. 

LlNLATHEN,    IWl  Oct.    1S6J. 

My  dear  Friend, — We  had  lately  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
your  young  artilleryman1  here,  whom  we  found  to  be  a 
very  agreeable  member  of  society,  full  of  intelligence  and 
information.  We  shall  hope  to  see  more  of  him  when  we 
go  into  Edinburgh  for  the  winter,  which  will  be  in  the 
beginning  of  November. 

You,  I  suppose,  are  much  occupied  about  Colenso's 
matters,   which  no   doubt   are   difficult,   and    require   the 

1  Captain  Frederick  Maurice. 


.142  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1862. 

wisdom  which  is  from  above — that  wisdom  which  teaches 
us  how  to  bear  one  another's  burdens — the  burdens  of 
Zooloos,  and  High  Church  and  Low  Church,  etc.  etc. 

Our  Lord  taught  men  as  they  were  able  to  bear  it ;  and 
Moses,  for  the  hardness  of  their  hearts,  allowed  various 
tilings ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  draw  boundaries. 

If  the  Bible  is  a  book  of  teaching,  it  must  contain  matter 
for  beginners  as  well  as  for  the  initiated ;  and  yet  to  talk 
of  degrees  of  spiritual  truth  is  to  some  minds  an  entire  sub- 
version of  authority,  and  we  ought  to  bear  the  burden  of 
such  as  well  as  of  others. 

An  implicit  faith,  however,  means  no  faith  at  all;  it 
implies  an  entire  ignoring  of  what  our  Lord  meant  to 
teach  when  He  said,  "  All  who  are  of  the  truth  are  my 
subjects."  .  .  . 

A  friend  of  mine  died  last  week  at  the  age  of  eighty-two, 
who  had  for  fifty  years  suffered  uninterruptedly  from 
neuralgia.1  Many  years  ago  he  told  me  that  for  twenty 
years  he  had  never  been  so  sound  asleep  as  to  lose  the  con- 
sciousness of  suffering.  He  died  praising  God  for  His 
tender  mercies,  which  had  led  him  all  his  journey  through. 
— Yours  affectionately,  T.  Erskine. 

200.    TO  THE  REV.  THOMAS  WRIGHT  MATHEWS. 

Linlathen,  4th  Nov.  1862. 

My  dear  Friend, — What  a  rest  it  is  to  the  spirit  to 
know  that  the  Lord  reigneth,  and  that  He  will  put  all  evil 
under  His  feet !  We  are  all  getting  on  now  to  the  end  of 
our  journey,  and  whilst  I  have  to  thank  God  for  His  un- 
ceasing love  and  care  and  goodness,  yet  I  have  to  agree 
with  you  in  saying  that  I  can  look  back  upon  nothing  in  my 
whole  life  that  I  do  not  more  or  less  condemn  and  grieve 
over.  .  .  .  This  publication  by  the  Bishop  of  Natal  on  the 
1  Lmlovic  Houston,  Esq.  of  Johnstone  Castle. 


/ET.  74.  REV.  J.   M.   CAMPBELL.  348 

non-historical  character  of  the  Exodus  is  a  remarkable 
fact,  which  may  shake  much  of  that  faith  which  does 
not  rest  on  God  alone.  I  grieve  for  it,  and  yet  I  believe 
the  man  to  be  an  earnest  and  good  man.  I  have  myself 
always  been  seeking  for  a  self-evidencing  light  in  divine 
truth  not  resting  on  any  authority  whatever,  but  children 
must  begin  by  trusting  to  authority,  and  throughout  this 
land  999  out  of  every  1000  are  children. — Yours  affec- 
tionately, T.  Erskine. 

P.S. — Dear  friend,  I  am  as  thoroughly  persuaded  as  I  am 
of  my  own  existence  that  God  will  not  be  overcome  of  evil, 
but  will  overcome  evil  with  good,  and  I  am  therefore  not 
much  disturbed  by  one  or  two  difficult  passages  which 
seem  to  point  to  a  different  result.  .  .  . 

201.    TO  THE  REV.  J.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL. 

Charlotte  Sq.,  Edinr.,  2lst  Nov.  1862. 
My  dear  Brother, —  .  .  .  And  now  what  shall  I  say 
about  this  most  painful  subject  of  Colenso  ]  Such  things 
have  been  suggested  before  by  enemies ;  but  here  a  friend, 
though  it  may  be  an  unwise  one,  yet  certainly  one  who 
desires  to  be  a  Christian  and  to  promote  Christianity,  has 
published  a  work  which  seems  to  sap  the  foundation  of 
traditional  faith.  That  he  has  been  rash  I  cannot  doubt. 
He  ought  to  have  kept  his  MS.  imprinted  for  years,  subject- 
ing it  to  the  examination  of  all  competent  friends  and 
philologians.  His  knowledge  of  Hebrew  literature  and 
philology  cannot  be  great,  having  begun  so  lately.  Then 
every  one  knows  that  numerals  are  most  liable  to  be 
corrupted  and  miscopied.  But  we  shall  have  opportunities 
of  talking  over  these  things  at  length  when  you  come  to 
Warriston.  .  .  . — Believe  me  ever  your  loving  brother, 

T.  Erskine. 


344  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1864. 

202.    TO  THE  REV.  ALEX.  J.  SCOTT. 

3  Charlotte  Square,  11th  Feb.  1864. 

.  .  .  What  an  immense  change  would  be  made  in  the  con- 
scious personal  religion  of  men,  as  well  as  in  their  theology, 
by  understanding  that  they  were  made  to  be  educated,  not  to 
be  tried ;  and  therefore  that  trial  is  in  order  to  education, 
not  education  in  order  to  trial.  Thou  wilt  not  be  over- 
come of  evil,  but  wilt  overcome  evil  with  good.  You 
were  the  person  that  showed  me  first  how  all  Divine  pre- 
cepts testified  to  Divine  character,  and  consequently  how 
we  are  entitled  to  look  to  God  for  this  optimism.  And  in 
analogy  with  this,  how  we  are  entitled  and  justified  in 
applying  to  God  everything  that  we  have  experienced  of 
amiable  or  conceived  of  amiable  in  our  fellow-creatures. 
I  am  carried  back  to  the  shore  of  the  Gareloch  in  1830, 
when  I  walked  and  talked  with  you ;  and  I  am  carried 
farther  back,  to  my  own  brother,  who  died  in  the  '16, 
and  whose  memory  has  been  such  a  blessed  help  to  me  in 
my  relation  to  Jesus,  and  my  realisation  of  the  character 
of  God.  "  If  ye  then  being  evil,  how  much  more."  Is  there 
not  a  real  rest  for  man's  spirit  in  this, — a  rest  upon  a 
rock  1 

There  are  many  things  which  I  should  like  to  talk  with 
you  about,  and  at  some  period  there  will  be  opportunity 
enough. — Ever  affectionately  yours,  T.  Erskine. 

203.    TO  DEAN  STANLEY. 

3  Charlotte  Square,  Ath  April  1864. 
My  dear  Dean  Stanley, —  .  .  .  Your  Church  seems 
to  be  in  a  sad  mess  at  present,1 — many  truly  earnest  men 

1  Referring  to  the  publication  of  Essays  and  Reviews,  and  Colenso  On 
(fie  Pentateuch. 


MT.  75.  MRS.  A.  J.  SCOTT.  345 

afraid  that  the  foundation  of  all  their  spiritual  hopes  is  to 
be  swept  away  by  criticism,  and  forgetting  that  any  revela- 
tion, whether  inspired  or  uninspired,  must  owe  its  whole 
value  to  its  being  the  discovery  of  truth  which  remains  true 
independently  of  that  revelation,  and  which  can  be  profit- 
able to  us  only  in  so  far  as  it  produces  a  conviction  in  our 
minds,  from  its  own  light,  unaffected  by  the  inspiration  or 
non-inspiration  of  the  revelation. 

In  this  whole  discussion  there  seems  to  me  to  lurk  the 
idea  that  the  dogmas  of  Christianity  are  imposed  on  us  not 
as  helps  or  guides,  but  as  exercises  of  obedience  and  sub- 
mission. I  believe,  on  the  contrary,  that  they  are  given 
for  the  purpose  of  explaining  to  us  our  relations  with  the 
spiritual  world.  What  are  the  dogmas  suited  for  domestic 
life  1  Suppose  a  man  entering  as  a  stranger  into  a  house, 
from  which  he  had  been  carried  away  as  an  infant,  and 
needing  guidance  for  his  conduct  there.  The  dogmas 
would  be,  "  that  old  man  is  your  father,  that  old  woman 
your  mother,  these  are  uncles  and  aunts,  brothers  and 
sisters,  there  is  an  old  servant  who  saved  your  life  in  your 
childhood,"  etc.  etc.  We  don't  know  our  duties  apart  from 
our  relations,  and  the  knowledge  of  our  relations  helps  us 
to  the  performance  as  well  as  the  knowledge  of  our  duties. 
To  suppose  that  such  domestic  truths  are,  in  the  case 
supposed,  given  as  exercises  of  faith,  and  to  be  received 
whether  understood  or  not,  would  be  too  absurd ;  and  yet 
it  would  be  less  absurd  than  in  the  case  of  the  Christian 
dogmas,  because  these  are  not  merely  facts,  but  the  vehicles 
and  expressions  of  principles,  recognisable  by  our  spiritual 
understanding,  as  eternal  and  necessary  truths.  Plato's 
doctrine  of  avdfxvrjais  would  be  a  help  to  them,  if  they 
would  use  it.  .  .  . — Ever  tridy  yours, 

T.  Erskine. 


346  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1865. 

204.    TO  MRS.  A.  J.  SCOTT. 

3  Charlotte  Square,  ISth  April  1S64. 

Dear  Mrs.  Scott,—  ...  I  cannot  doubt  that  Mr. 
Scott  has  read  Renan's  "  Life  of  Jesus ; "  I  should  have 
liked  to  have  talked  with  him  about  it.  I  am  not  satisfied 
with  any  of  the  reviews  of  it.  I  don't  think  that  Renan's 
criticism  is  to  be  met  by  criticism,  but  by  showing  what 
an  empty  gospel  he  makes  of  it,  and  what  a  real  gospel  he 
puts  away,  and  also  by  showing  what  a  true  rationalism 
there  lies  in  what  he  rejects  as  untenable  in  reason. 

God's  training  of  spirits  endowed  with  free-will  into  His 
own  sympathy  is  evidently  a  higher  thing  than  the  order- 
ing of  the  material  world,  and  we  ought  not  therefore  to 
suppose  that  the  plan  of  that  training  is  to  be  subordinated 
to  what  we  see  or  know'  of  these  lower  laws.  Renan  has 
evidently  never  awakened  to  the  consciousness  of  that 
tremendous  capacity  of  suffering  that  exists  in  the  heart  of 
man,  else  he  would  feel  the  necessity  of  finding  a  remedy 
and  a  refuge  in  the  heart  of  an  almighty,  all-wise,  and  all- 
loving  Creator.  Love  is  to  Renan  an  object  of  tasteful  ad- 
miration, not  the  one  great  spiritual  power  in  the  universe. 

We  are  at  present  in  a  distress.  We  have  the  Bishop 
of  Argyll  with  us,  and  he  has  been  taken  ill. 

Give  our  kind  regards  to  your  sister  from  us  all. — Yours 
affectionately,  T.  Erskine. 

205.    TO  LADY  AUGUSTA  STANLEY. 

31  Charlotte  Square,  lllh  Feb.  1865. 
Dearly  Beloved, — I  have  received,  and  read,  and  sym- 
pathised with  the  lecture 1  which  you  had  the  kindness  to 

1  A  lecture  on  the  "  Theology  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,"  by  the  Dean 
of  Westminster,  read  at  a  meeting  of  the  London  clergy,  the  substance  of 
which  appeared  in  "  Fraser's  Magazine  "  for  February  1865. 


XT.  76.  LADY  A UGUSTA  STANLE Y.  .'54 i 

send  to  me.     I  should  like  to  have  a  talk  with  the  author 
on  the  various  subjects  touched  so  well  and  lovingly  in  it. 

There  is  a  point  which  I  have  often  wished  to  see  more 
illustrated  and  enforced  than  it  is  generally,  and  that  is  the 
adaptation  of  the  Christian  dogma  (when  believed)  to  pro- 
duce the  Christian  character.  Paul  speaks  of  the  Gospel 
as  being  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation,  that  is,  as  con- 
taining the  dynamics,  so  to  speak,  the  spiritual  lever,  and 
ropes,  and  pulleys,  and  wheels  by  which  the  human  spirit 
may  be  lifted  out  of  the  horrible  pit  and  miry  clay  of  sin 
and  selfishness  into  a  harmony  with  the  mind  of  God,  so 
that  a  real  apprehension  of  the  character  of  God  and  His 
purposes  towards  us,  and  our  relation  to  Him,  without  any 
mention  of  the  precepts,  would  spontaneously  produce  the 
life  of  them  within  our  souls. 

Kenan  complains  of  the  Christian  dogmas  as  encum- 
brances on  the  beautiful  morality  of  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  not  considering  whether  it  would  be  possible  to 
obey  those  precepts  by  mere  effort,  and  without  knowing 
what  the  dogmas  teach  of  the  spiritual  relations  in  which 
we  stand  both  to  God  and  man.  A  man  could  not  possibly 
fulfil  his  duties  as  the  member  of  a  domestic  circle,  unless 
he  knew  what  that  circle  was  composed  of,  and  what  the 
place  which  he  himself  held  in  it.  .  .  . — "With  kindest 
regards  to  the  Dean,  yours  most  affectionately, 

T.  Euskink. 


348  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  186; 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Records  of  a  Visit  to  Linlathen  in  the  Autumn  of  1865. 

Mrs.  Rich,  whose  name  appears  often  in  these  pages,  was 
the  eldest  daughter  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  and  the 
widow  of  one  who,  but  for  his  early  death,  would  perhaps 
have  been  equally  well  known.  Claudius  James  Rich  was 
the  precursor  of  Layard  and  Rawlinson  on  the  field  of 
Oriental  discovery,  and  as  resident  at  Bagdad  a  protector 
so  prized  by  an  oppressed  people  that  thirty  years  after 
his  death  a  traveller  on  the  Tigris,  asking  the  meaning 
of  some  plaintive  dirge  sung  by  the  peasants,  learned 
that  it  was  a  lament  for  him.  With  him,  in  exclusion 
of  all  other  society  whatever  but  the  visits  of  chance 
travellers,  Mrs.  Rich  spent  fourteen  years  of  peculiar 
happiness  and  absorbing  devotion,  and  his  sudden  death 
by  cholera  during  a  short  absence  of  his  wife's  con- 
verted that  happiness  into  a  desolation  as  intense  and 
unmitigated.  She  became  acquainted  with  Mr.  Erskine 
when  the  first  profound  grief  had  been  complicated  with 
others,  and  the  devout  life  which  had  succeeded  to  the 
earlier  phase  of  intense  feeling  had  taken  a  strong  hold 
upon  her.  Fifty  years  ago  all  religion  which  was  at  once 
manifest  and  intense  was  of  that  kind  which  is  generally 
described  as  evangelical,  and  her  first  religious  associations 
were  formed  with  persons  professing  that  form  of  Christian- 


mt.  76.  A/ISS  WEDGWOOD.  349 


ity.  It  had  much  to  attract,  but  much  also  to  repel  her,  and 
her  friendship  with  Mr.  Erskine  and  Mr.  Scott  was  the  open- 
ing to  her  of  a  world  where  the  intensity  of  belief  in  the 
invisible,  the  fervent  hatred  of  sin,  the  profound  belief  in 
the  enduring  reality  and  supreme  significance  of  the  work 
of  Christ,  which  are  generally  associated  with  that  school, 
were  joined  to  a  confidence  in  the  universality  of  the  love 
of  God  and  of  its  ultimate  triumph  in  the  case  of  every 
human  spirit,  which  were  at  that  time,  and  indeed  are 
more  or  less  at  every  time,  apt  to  be  associated  with  a  low 
standard  of  holiness  and  a  poor  estimate  of  the  spiritual 
life.  Mrs.  Rich  felt  it  a  great  crisis  in  her  life  when  Mr. 
Erskine  whispered  to  her  the  wide  hopes  which,  in  the  reli- 
gious society  of  half  a  century  ago,  it  was  not  easy  and 
perhaps  not  desirable  to  express  openly.  She  became  one 
of  his  dearest  friends,  though  in  later  life  circumstances 
kept  them  much  apart. 

The  following  letters  were  addressed  to  her  niece,  Miss 
Wedgwood,  who,  happening  to  have  been  born  in  a  snow- 
storm, had  a  name  bestowed  on  her  in  the  familiar  par- 
lance of  family  and  friends,  which  the  special  affection  he 
cherished  for  her  led  Mr.  Erskine  to  employ  : — 

206.    TO  MISS  WEDGWOOD. 

Polloc  House,  Glasgow,  ISth  May  1SG5. 
Beloved  Snow, —  .  .  .  The  evidence  of  a  spiritual 
state  which  continually  forces  itself  upon  me  is  the  demand 
which  my  conscience  makes  on  me  for  qualities  and  feel- 
ings which  would  not  be  at  all  necessary,  if  this  out- 
ward social  order  were  all.  To  do  actions  beneficial  to 
society  and  to  abstain  from  actions  hurtful  to  society 
would  be  enough;  but  love  and  holiness,  and  trust  in 
an  unseen,  are  demanded  by  my  conscience,  and  are  neces- 
sary for  my  peace,  still  more  than  any  outward  actions 


350  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSK1NE.  1865. 

whatever,  and  I  cannot  meet  these  demands  without  know- 
ing something  of  the  nature  of  that  spiritual  world  of 
which  they  are  the  natural  laws.  My  whole  being  is  a 
contradiction  if  there  he  not  a  spiritual  world  and  if  I  do 
not  belong  to  it.  But  it  is  impossible  that  my  being  should 
be  a  contradiction.  I  feel  that  goodness  and  truth  and 
righteousness  are  realities,  eternal  realities,  and  that  they 
cannot  be  abstractions  or  vapours  floating  in  a  spiritual 
atmosphere,  but  that  they  necessarily  imply  a  living  per- 
sonal will,  a  good,  loving,  righteous  God,  in  whose  hands 
we  are  perfectly  safe,  and  who  is  guiding  us  by  unfailing 
,  wisdom.  I  have  known  in  my  life  two  or  three  persons 
//  who,  I  knew,  honestly  and  earnestly  and  unceasingly 
endeavoured  to  help  me  to  be  a  right  man;  and  now,  in 
looking  back  on  these  persons,  I  feel  what  a  deep  confidence 
this  purpose  of  theirs  inspired  me  with,  and  I  am  conscious 
of  having  a  similar  confidence  in  God  through  all  varieties 
in  His  treatment  of  me,  because  I  have  in  my  conscience 
the  continual  proof  that  He  never  for  a  moment  relaxes 
His  earnest  purpose  that  I  should  be  right. 

Dear  friend,  I  write  these  fragmentary  sentences  from 
the  hope  that  you  may  catch  hold  of  something  in  them 
which  may  help  you  to  take  hold  of  God.  There  is  nothing 
else  which  can  do  us  any  good.  If  I  believe  in  God,  in  a 
Being  who  made  me,  and  fashioned  me,  and  knows  my 
wants  and  capacities  and  necessities,  because  He  gave  them 
to  me,  and  who  is  perfectly  good  and  loving,  righteous, 
and  perfectly  wise  and  powerful,  whatever  my  circumstances 
inward  or  outward  may  be, however  thick  thedarknesswhich 
encompasses  me,  I  yet  can  trust,  yea,  be  assured,  that  all 
will  be  well,  that  He  can  draw  light  out  of  darkness,  and 
make  crooked  things  straight.  Without  such  a  thought  of 
God,  the  consciousness  of  being  embarked  in  an  unending 
existence,  out  of  which  we  cannot  extricate  ourselves,  would 


jet.  76.  MISS  WEDGWOOD.  351 

be  a  horror  insupportable,  but  I  know  that  He  can  make 
it  not  only  supportable,  but  a  real  and  continual  joy  and 
a  reason  for  continual  thankfulness. 

"Que  raon  ame  vive  qu'elle  te  loue."  Dear  Madame  de 
Broglie  used  to  repeat  that  verse  the  last  year  of  her  life 
as  the  chief  expression  of  her  feeling. 

Yes,  beloved  Snow,  we  shall  yet  see  a  moral  law  of 
gravitation  doing  in  the  world  of  spirits  that  which  the 
material  law  of  gravitation  does  in  this  visible  system  of 
things  ;  we  yet  shall  see  the  infinite  righteous  love  of  God 
attracting  all  hearts,  and  uniting  them  to  Himself  and  to 
each  other,  and  filling  them  all  out  of  His  fulness. 

Farewell.  I  may  be  here  for  a  few  days  longer;  but 
Linlathen  will  be  my  proper  address  through  the  summer. 
— Ever  yours  very  affectionately,  T.  Erskine. 

I  am  just  looking  at  some  beautiful  fragrant  flowers,  and 
they  seem  to  me  to  say  so  much  of  the  gentleness  and 
tenderness  of  their  Creator.  What  do  they  represent  1 
Can  Ave  say  when  they  are  before  us  that  we  have  no  evi- 
dence of  the  love  and  righteousness  of  God  1  But  still  the 
demand  of  righteousness  within  us  is  the  chiefest  evidence, 
— an  evidence  which  the  dismal  condition  of  the  human 
race  does  not  seem  to  me  at  all  to  shake.  God  is  in  no 
hurry,  and  man  requires  a  long  and  varied  process. 

207.    TO  MISS  WEDGWOOD. 

Linlathen,  Dundee,  12th  June  1865. 
My  dear  Snow, — I  feel  that  what  ought  to  be,  must  be, 
and  is,  so  that  when  I  am  satisfied  that  a  thing  ought  to 
be,  I  feel  justified  in  regarding  it  as  a  reality.  A  universe 
without  a  right  and  good  purpose  in  creating,  sustaining, 
and  guiding  it,  is  a  thing  which  I  am  sure  ought  not  to  be, 
and  cannot  be.     I  believe  in  good — in  the  existence  of  good. 


352  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1865. 

I  cannot  help  believing  in  it ;  but  I  am  sure  good  cannot 
exist  without  a  will,  and  so  I  find  that  my  belief  in  good 
actually  implies  my  belief  in  God,  the  living  Fountain  of 
good. 

Is  my  inner  sense,  my  conscience,  less  to  be  trusted  than 
my  outward  senses  1  Have  I  firmer  reason  to  believe  in 
an  outward  world  than  in  an  inward  ]  I  think  not.  I 
believe  in  the  reality  of  goodness  and  rightness,  at  least  as 
much  as  I  do  in  the  reality  of  earth  and  water.  In  fact,  I 
could  not  feel  justified  in  ascribing  reality  to  the  outward 
world  at  all,  in  a  true  sense  ;  it  does  not  seem  to  have  a 
necessary  existence,  as  the  other  has. 

The  beauty  and  order  of  the  material  world  seem  to 
me  to  contain  an  assurance  that  in  the  higher  region  of 
creation,  in  the  moral  world,  a  similar  order  will  yet  take 
place,  and  must  take  place.  I  am  sure  that  if  all  hearts 
were  filled  with  righteous  love,  all  the  present  confusion 
and  misery  Avould  disappear  from  the  earth.  I  see  a 
preparation  for  this  result  in  the  capacity  of  love  as  a  part 
of  our  organisation,  and  in  the  capacity  of  apprehending 
God  as  a  centre  of  attraction.  This  is  a  very  refreshing 
thought,  dear  Snow ;  look  at  it  kindly  and  cordially.  I 
cannot  love  that  which  is  unloveable,  directly,  or  in  itself, 
but  I  can  arrive  at  loving  it  through  another.  I  cannot 
be  right  or  happy  till  I  love  all  men,  and  yet  there  is  some- 
thing exceedingly  unloveable  in  almost  all  men.  How  am 
I  to  get  over  this  difficulty  1  If  I  see  that  there  is  a  God, 
and  that  there  is  a  real  loveableness  in  God,  so  that  I  can 
love  Him,  and  if  I  see  that  He  loves  me  and  all  other 
unloveable  men  with  a  love  which  desires  to  make  me  and 
them  worthier  both  of  His  love  and  of  each  other's  love, 
I  can  as  it  were  ascend  by  the  ray  of  love  which  comes 
from  His  heart  to  myself,  and  from  that  heart  survey,  in 
its  own  light,  all  the  objects  of  its  love,  entering  into  its 


^t.  76.  MISS  WEDGWOOD'S  JOURNAL.  353 


sympathies  and    longings  and    desires    concerning    them. 
This  ought  to  be — therefore  is. 

I  have  just  been  engaged  in  a  wonderful  history.  When 
I  left  Edinburgh  three  weeks  ago,  I  went,  as  my  habit  has 
been  for  some  years,  to  visit  an  old  friend  at  his  house  in 
the  country.  He  was  a  sufferer  from  rheumatic  pains 
and  from  injuries  sustained  by  falls  in  hunting  in  his  earlier 
life  ;  but  he  was  in  his  usual  health,  having  recovered  from 
an  influenza  which  had  laid  him  up  a  short  time  before. 
After  I  had  been  nearly  a  fortnight  with  him,  and  when  I 
was  preparing  to  come  away,  he  pressed  me  to  stay  a  day 
or  two  longer  to  see  his  nephew,  an  old  friend  and  relative 
of  mine  whom  he  was  expecting.  I  stayed  a  clay  or  two, 
and  saw  him  in  the  course  of  that  time  hurried  out  of  life 
and  laid  out  a  corpse  on  his  bed.  I  have  scarcely  been 
able  to  realise  it — it  seems  like  a  troubled  dream;  the  merely 
phenomenal  character  of  all  outward  things  has  been  pressed 
in  upon  me  by  it,  whilst  the  deep  eternal  reality  of  God, 
and  of  our  relation  to  Him,  has  commended  itself  to  me 
more  strongly.   .  .  . — Ever  affectionately  yours, 

T.  Erskine. 

The  result  of  this  correspondence  was  a  visit  paid  to 
Linlathen  in  the  month  of  September,  of  which  a  journal 
was  kept  by  Miss  Wedgwood,  and  transmitted  to  London 
with  the  object  of  bringing  Mr.  Erskine  near  to  her  aunt 
Mrs.  Eich,  as  it  proved  for  the  last  time  in  this  world. 
Some  extracts  from  this  journal  are  now  presented  to  the 
reader : — 

Linlathen,  1865. 

I  think  what  I  feel  specially  valuable  in  him,  distinct 
from  all  other  religious  people  I  know,  is  his  intense 
consciousness  and  realising  of  all  the  difficulties  and 
mysteries  of  this  life,  combined  with  his  perfect  trust  in 

z 


.S.">4  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1865. 

the  purpose  of  this  life  as  education.  I  know  others  who 
have  the  last,  and  of  course  many  many  who  have  the 
first,  but  the  union  of  the  two  I  think  I  never  saw  but 
in  him  ;  he  looks  not  across  the  mysterious  gulf  of  evil 
merely,  but  through  it.  It  is  not  any  ignoring,  any  silence 
in  his  spirit  about  the  hideous  abyss,  but  it  is  seeing  an 
object  which  makes  all  worth  while,  and  a  strength  that 
can  not  only  bridge  it  over,  but  change  it.  ...  I  feel  Mr. 
Erskine  is  always  saying  to  himself,  as  indeed  he  has  said 
once  or  twice  since  I  came  here,  "  It  is  the  best  thing  that 
is  offered  each  of  us  ;  we  cannot  see  it,  but  it  is  the  best 
thing."  .   .  . 

One  thing  reminded  me  of  you  so  much — it  was  in  speak- 
ing of  the  subject  you  and  I  have  often  discussed,  of  families 
separating, — and  his  words  struck  me,  "  It  is  neglecting  the 
finger-posts,"  he  said, — which  seems  to  me  so  exactly  what  it 
is.  In  some  rare  cases,  no  doubt,  a  person  may  find  a  better 
path  by  neglecting  the  finger-posts,  but  almost  never.  I 
liked  the  way  he  dwelt  on  the  blessing  of  our  circumstances 
being  made  for  us,  it  is  so  much  what  one  is  tempted  to 
forget  just  now  :  "  It  is  a  great  evil  to  refuse  to  understand 
our  circumstances,  but  we  never  shall  understand  them,  or 
God's  purpose  in  them,  till  we  have  become  partners  in 
effecting  it.  We  do  not  first  see  the  meaning  of  our 
education,  and  then  yield  to  it,  but  Ave  see  it  as  we  yield,  or 
rather  as  we  take  up  our  share,  for  we  must  become  active 
in  it.  And  yet  it  is  not  all  volition.  There  must  be 
something  in  it  that  our  will  cannot  produce." 

He  was  speaking  at  one  time  of  Judas,  and  the  strange- 
fact  that  to  a  sordid  nature  like  his  it  should  have  been 
allotted  to  take  care  of  the  purse,  so  that  it  seemed  as  if 
God  had  encouraged  what  was  wrong  in  him,  giving  him 
an  opportunity  of  evil.  "  But  then  the  opportunity  of  evil 
is  the  opportunity  of  good.     The  temptation  may  be  made 


mt.  76.  MISS  WEDGWOOD'S  JOURNAL.  355 


the  deliverance.  A  friend  of  mine  once  repeated  to  me  a 
sentence  out  of  a  sermon  that  he  thought  utter  nonsense, 
but  to  me  it  seemed  to  have  a  meaning  in  it, — 'What 
were  rocks  made  for,  my  brethren  %  Even  that  mariners 
might  avoid  them!'"  I  rather  agreed  with  his  friend; 
but  I  saw  what  he  meant  by  the  words, — that  there  was  a 
gain  in  havinor  avoided  rocks  which  there  would  not  be  in 
rocks  never  having  existed.  But  he  saw  the  Irishism  of 
the  saying  of  course  very  clearly. 

Then  another  time  he  said  a  thing  that  struck  me  very 
much — I  don't  mean  that  I  had  never  thought  it  myself, 
but  the  words  as  they  came  from  him  seemed  fuller, — 
"  Right  is  always  right,  and  wrong  always  wrong,  but  the 
indications  of  right  and  wrong  are  very  different,  and  vary 
from  age  to  age ;  in  our  own  day  what  we  have  to  learn  is 
that  the  indications  of  wrong  (as  we  have  thought  them) 
may  be  found  along  with  right  and  the  indications  of  right 
along  with  wrong.  There  was  a  time  when  the  watchword 
of  a  party  was  so  closely  linked  with  the*  reality  that  people 
did  not  see  the  difference.  I  do  not  think  it  is  so  now ; 
Paul  preached  Jesus.  That  word  was  enough  then.  Now 
it  may  mean  anything."  I  cannot  tell  you  how  it  impressed 
me,  the  way  he  said  this  ;  but  perhaps  I  have  hardly 
conveyed  to  you  all  that  it  meant  for  me. 

Sept.  5,  1865. 
We  were  speaking  of  the  Bible,  and  the  present  critical 
spirit  towards  it.  "  I  think/' he  said,  "we  shall  learn  to 
value  the  Bible  more  as  we  grow  independent  of  it.  I  do 
value  parts  of  the  Bible  exceedingly,  but  I  do  not  feel 
that  I  depend  upon  it.  When  I  find  a  small  despised 
people  from  the  first  asserting  a  righteousness  in  the 
Divine  Being  which  I  do  not  find  in  the  gods  of  more 
enlightened     nations,     I    cannot    feel    that    this    is    mere 


356  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1865. 

accident.  This  Avas  the  teaching  of  God.  But  then, 
when  I  come  upon  discrepancies  in  the  narratives  which 
are  very  definite  and  striking,  neither  can  I  ignore  them, 
and  I  feel  that  this  is  not  inspiration.  The  records  are 
the  vehicle  of  principles  which  are  true  independently  of 
the  records,  and  which  criticism  cannot  touch."  "  But 
then,"  I  said,  "  my  difficulty  is  that  I  do  not  see  how  to 
reconcile  the  spirit  that  the  Bible  demands  with  the 
critical  spirit  of  our  time,  and  yet  I  feel  that  this  last  may 
be  a  right  spirit ;  all  that  is  valuable  in  our  time  is  critical." 
"  Yes,  we  cannot  crush  it,  we  must  accept  it.  But  the 
object  of  criticism  is  that  which  is  variable.  The  object 
of  faith  is  that  which  is  unchanging,  which  is  true  being. 
Now  I  have  no  difficulty  in  receiving  the  fact  of  miracle. 
But  if  any  one  has,  I  do  not  conceive  that  he  is  thereby 
debarred  from  entering  into  the  spirit  of  Christianity. 
The  one  is  a  fact,  the  other  is  a  principle.  The  two  things 
can  never  come  into  collision  with  each  other."  .  .  . 

"  When  we  are  perplexed  by  the  sight  of  creatures  who 
seem  to  be  receiving  no  education,  or  worse  than  none, 
who  are  debased  by  all  the  suffering  they  have  gone 
through,  I  think  the  only  answer  is  to  reflect  upon  the 
infinite  variety  of  function  that  we  are  called  upon  to  fill, 
and  the  infinite  variety  consequently  of  education  necessary 
for  this  purpose.  Christ  is  the  head,  and  the  members  are 
various,  each  represented  by  numbers  of  human  beings, 
and  sometimes  no  doubt  some  seem  in  a  very  much  lower 
position  than  others ;  but  when  we  remember  the  oneness 
of  life  in  which  all  partake  there  is  nothing  of  degradation 
in  that  variety.  All  form  one  body,  and  every  member  of 
that  body  needs  a  different  training.  God  knows  the  least 
necessities  of  each.  Think  of  the  number  of  infants  that 
die  under  a  year  old.  We  cannot  suppose  they  go  out  of 
school.     Why  should  it  be  any  difficulty  to  us  that  after  a 


jet.  76.  MISS   WEDGWOOD'S  JOURNAL.  357 

long  life  many  should  leave  this  world  as  much  in  need 
of  prolonged  discipline  ?  Everything  in  our  experience 
seems,  if  I  may  say  so,  to  indicate  something  very  lengthy. 
God  is  in  no  hurry  with  us,  let  us  be  in  no  hurry  with 
Him."  ... 

"  I  wonder  it  is  not  a  greater  difficulty  in  the  theory  of  \\ 
Kenan,  that  the  fourth  Gospel  contains  no  moral  teaching  * 
at  all.  Every  word  which  Jesus  utters  there  refers  to 
Himself.  Now  is  it  possible  to  feel  any  admiration  for 
Him,  and  not  to  feel  that  the  being  who  could  speak  thus 
must  be  more  than  man  ]  If  he  is  not  God,  he  cannot  be 
a  good  man.  No  mere  man  could  use  such  language  of 
himself,  and  retain  his  right  to  our  reverence."  .  .  . 

I  asked  him  about  the  passage,  John  x.  34,  36,  which 
seems  a  difficulty  in  connection  with  this  view. 

"Yes,  it  seems  like  diluting  His  demands  upon  their  ^'t, 
reverence  by  taking  the  meaning  of  Divinity  in  a  some- 
what lower  sense.  I  have  never  been  able  to  understand 
it.  But  what  is  certain  is,  that  we  must  interpret  an 
isolated  passage  in  harmony  with  the  general  tenor  of  the 
book,  and  not  vice  versa." 

Sept.  6. 

"It  is  no  difficulty  to  me  that  so  many  people  are  placed 
in  circumstances  for  which  they  are  not  fitted.  I  have 
felt  all  my  life  that  I  was  in  circumstances  for  which  I 
was  not  fitted,  and  I  see  that  this  is  necessary.  Education 
would  stop  if  we  and  our  circumstances  fitted  each  other. 
Failure  is  no  difficulty  to  me,  or  rather  there  can  be  no 
failure ;  for  the  purpose  of  God  is  the  training  of  the  spirit, 
and  this  cannot  fail.  All  that  we  are  accustomed  to  value, 
all  that  we  make  an  object  of,  is  just  mere  gymnastics. 
It  is  nothing  if  it  does  not  help  forward  this.  For  some 
the  whole  period  of  this  life  may  be  rightly  taken  up  with 


358  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1865. 

learning  their  own  evil,  their  own  weakness.  It  may  be 
necessary  through  many  ages  to  plumb  the  depths  of  our 
own  misery,  that  we  may  learn  to  know  what  the  help  of 
God  means.  I  believe  that  we  shall  come  to  feel  that  all 
was  worth  while,  that  it  is  not  too  much  to  endure,  if  it 
had  gone  on  for  thousands  of  years,  to  bring  us  to  an 
eternity  of  righteousness.  Think  of  it — the  love  of  God  ! 
We  use  those  words  very  often,  and  get  no  comfort  from 
them,  but  think  what  human  love  means, — a  perfect  oneness 
of  sympathy  and  will  with  any  very  near  friends,  and 
imagine  that  purified  and  intensified  to  Infinitude  !  The 
depth  of  our  misery  now  is  to  me  a  witness  of  the  im- 
mensity of  the  blessing  that  makes  all  this  worth  while." 

Sept  7. 

"  I  look  upon  Christianity  as  the  revelation  of  recipiency, 
of  the  passive  side  of  the  character  of  God.  I  can  conceive 
that  the  first  preachers  of  Christianity  understood  this  very 
incompletely.  Paul — what  a  noble,  heroic  figure  that 
is  !  And  yet  we  see  that  to  him  one  great  idea  is  the 
breaking  down  of  the  partition-wall  between  Jew  and 
Gentile.  That  can  no  longer  be  a  significant  idea  for  us. 
There  is  no  partition-wall,  there  is  no  caste  any  longer. 
Christianity  develops  itself  to  us  on  a  different  side  from 
what  he  saw.  We  want  to  take  hold  of  this  ideal  of 
recipiency.  I  have  sometimes  wondered  what  it  is  that 
makes  Unitarians  so  dry  and  undevotional, — what  great 
difference  thei»  can  be  between  one  form  of  belief  and 
another.  And  I  see  it  is  just  this,  that  they  have  not  the 
element  of  devotion,  which  is  this  recipiency.  They  stand 
alone.  They  leave  out  the  side  of  God  on  which  He  is 
accessible  to  us."  .  .  . 

" For  my  part,  a  miracle  presents  no  difficulty  to  me;  I 
feel  the  need  of  it  so  much.     I  feel  most  literally  that  there 


jet.  76.  MISS  WEDGWOOD'S  JOURNAL.  359 

is  no  happiness  for  me  that  is  not  miraculous  ;  nothing  else 
would  suffice  for  my  happiness  hut  a  miracle. 

(Speaking  of  the  general  notion  of  eternal  punishment,) 
"  I  do  not  think  that  with  holy  men  of  old  it  was  so  much 
the  idea  of  death  being  an  end,  as  it  was  that  we  were  all 
parts  of  a  whole,  and  that  progress  was  a  thing  for  the  whole. 
But  I  do  not  look  upon  it  so  much  as  a  house  that  is  to 
be  built,  as  a  set  of  bricks  that  are  to  be  prepared.  It  is 
not  a  whole  at  all ;  it  is  a  set  of  individuals  that  are  each 
under  special  training.  .  .  . 

"All  religion  is  in  the  change  from  He  to  Thou.  It  is 
a  mere  abstraction  as  long  as  it  is  He.  Only  with  the 
Thou  we  know  God." 

Sept.  7. 

Dearest  *  *  *, — I  go  on  sending  you  from  clay  to  day 
what  I  can  remember  of  the  words  that  I  know  you  so 
deeply  value,  and  even  if  you  do  not  find  that  in  this  form 
they  convey  anything,  I  shall  not  regret  making  the  effort, 
for  I  find  that  the  attempt  to  remember  these  words  recalls 
them  to  my  mind,  and,  if  not  the  exact  words,  so  much  as 
fills  out  the  meaning  of  what  he  has  been  saying.  As  you 
must  well  know,  there  is  something  rather  fragmentary  and 
abrupt  about  his  expression,  with  so  many  of  those  little 
grunts  interpolated  that  mean  so  much  when  one  gets  to 
know  him  ;  it  is  as  if  the  woi'ds  were  all  too  small,  and  what 
meaning  overflowed  their  edge  ran  into  these.  I  took  a 
delightful  drive  with  him  yesterday  to  the  edge  of  the  ferry. 
It  is  very  pleasant  to  see  his  great  enjoyment  in  the  face 
of  nature,  though  he  is  so  blind. 

He  has  been  asking  about  them  all.  It  is  rather 
formidable  sometimes  when  he  says  "  What  is  so  and  so  V 
He  has  great  discrimination  of  character  in  some  ways. 

He  was  talking  a  good  deal  of  Mr. yesterday,  and  said 

how  strange  it  was   that  with  his    great   admiration    of 


360  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1865. 

Socrates  he  had  nothing  of  the  Socratic  dialectic  method 
— that  he  never  went  step  by  step  with  any  mind, — that 
he  did  not  give  him  the  idea  of  ever  having  been  intimate 
with  any  one. 

Ltnlathen,  Sept.  10,  1865. 

Mr.  Erskine's  mind  seems  to  have  been  dwelling  much 
lately  on  the  analogy  between  the  inward  and  the  outward 
world,  he  has  spoken  so  much  of  the  force  with  which 
the  spectacle  of  a  universe  regulated  by  the  law  of  gravita- 
tion weighed  upon  him,  as  a  token  of  the  one  principle 
which  was  to  keep  the  spiritual  world  in  order — that  of 
love.  .  .  .  He  seems  to  look  upon  the  force  of  gravitation 
as  a  sort  of  parable  of  the  influence  of  love — keeping  every- 
thing together,  keeping  everything  in  movement  which 
does  not  interfere  with  any  other  movement,  keeping 
everything  in  its  right  place.  Judaism,  he  said,  he  re- 
garded as  chiefly  occupied  with  the  orbit  of  the  planet — 
Christianity  as  a  revelation  of  its  centre.  "  No  human 
being,"  he  said  at  one  time,  "  is  without  lucid  intervals 
in  which  he  would  allow  that  the  only  good  tiling  in  life 
is  love,  and  that  every  drop  of  sweetness  comes  from 
this.  Christianity  is  the  revelation  of  the  fountain-head 
of  all  these  scattered  drops.  It  tells  us  that  there  is  abso- 
lutely no  other  righteousness  than  love." 

The  greater  part  of  this  was  said  when  we  were  walking 
to  Broughty-Ferry,  and  I  shall  never  forget  one  moment 
when  he  stopped  to  look  up  into  the  blue  sky  through  a 
break  in  the  clouds  and  said,  "  What  a  wonderful  thing 
it  is  that  light  should  hide  !  There  are  the  stars — why  do 
we  not  see  them  1  Why  do  we  not  see  God  1  He  is  here." 
He  was  of  course  thinking  of  Blanco  White's  sonnet,1  of 
which  he  spoke  with  great  admiration.     He  spoke  some 

1  "  Mysterious  Night  !  when  our  first  Parent  knew 

Thee,  from  report  divine,  and  heard  thy  name,"  etc. 


jet.  76.  MISS  WEDGWOOD'S  JOURNAL.  361 


time  on  this,  the  unexpectedness  of  the  means  by  which 
the  stars  were  hidden  from  us,  the  impossibility  of  our 
ever  guessing  that  anything  was  there  but  blue  sky.  I 
think  his  mind  was  dwelling  on  the  possible  surprise  with 
which  it  might  be  that  some  who  had  looked  earnestly  for 
God  and  never  found  Him  should  see  Him  emerge  as  it 
were  in  some  other  state.  He  said  distinctly,  Atheism 
might  be  a  misfortune,  it  might  be  a  stage  of  education 
through  which  some  spirits  had  to  pass — that  it  might  be 
the  will  of  God  for  a  time  to  hide  Himself  from  them.  I 
had  asked  Mr.  E.  how  he  would  look  at  the  mere  records  of 
Christianity.  He  said,  "  Though  we  must  of  course  approach 
that  narrative  just  like  any  other,  yet  to  my  feeling 
Christianity  itself  has  more  analogy  with  natural  science 
than  with  history.  It  is  a  revelation  of  laws  that  are 
independent  of  facts.  There  must  be  a  centre  of  gravity 
in  the  moral  world,  which  when  once  found  we  shall  be 
right,  like  the  planets,  not  only  as  to  that  centre,  but  to 
everything  else."  He  dwelt  much  upon  the  analogy  of 
the  outward  world  and  the  inward  world  :  "  The  planets 
move  in  orderly  circles  because  they  have  a  right  centre — 
we  have  disorderly  motions,  because  we  have  a  wrong 
centre.  The  way  to  get  right  is  to  get  into  the  right  / 
place,  not  to  go  on  trying  very  hard  to  be  right  where  we  ; 
are.  It  is  not  that  by  long  trying  we  acquire  the  habit  of 
right,  and  at  last  it  gets  easy  to  us  :  it  is  that  we  see  the 
right  way.  I  feel,  '  If  I  had  seen  that,  I  could  just  as  well 
have  done  it  at  first.' "... 

I  asked  him  what  he  felt  the  evidence  of  a  spiritual 
world.  He  said,  "  It  is  that  in  us  which  is  unsatisfied  with 
what  is  necessary  for  the  mere  social  order.  Take  the 
feeling  of  revenge.  It  is  enough  for  my  neighbour  if  I 
refrain  from  injuring  him  and  perform  actions  beneficial  to 
him.     That  satisfies  all  the  conditions  of  the  social  order. 


362  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1865. 

But  it  is  not  enough  for  me.  .Something  within  me 
demands  a  feeling  which  is,  for  all  outward  result,  utterly- 
invisible.  What  is  this  but  a  witness  that  we  are  inhabi- 
tants of  a  world  totally  distinct  from  the  mere  social  order  1 
Think  of  it — something  may  be  within  us  which  no  human 
eye  can  see,  and  yet  which  we  are  called  upon  to  renounce. 
What  does  this  mean1?  What  could  it  mean,  if  we  were 
inhabitants  of  a  mere  human  world  1  Here  would  be  a 
demand,  and  no  one  to  make  the  demand,  a  summons  with- 
out a  voice.  I  feel  that  righteousness  implies  will,  that 
goodness  is  nothing  if  there  is  not  a  good  being.  The 
difference  between  the  teaching  of  Christ  and  the  teaching 
of  all  others — of  the  wisest  and  best,  of  Plato  for  instance 
— is,  that  they  spoke  of  justice,  and  He  spoke  of  the  Just 
One." 

Sept.  13,  1865. 

Mr.  Erskine  spoke  of  the  connection  between  Matt.  vii. 
1-5,  "Judge  not,"  etc.,  and  the  verses  which  follow,  "Give 
not  that  which  is  holy  to  the  dogs,"  etc., — and  then  of  the 
transition  which  seems  in  the  ordinary  acceptation  of  these 
later  words  so  abrupt  and  almost  contradictory,  but  which, 
as  he  understands  it,  is  a  harmonious  development  of  the 
same  idea.  The  instrument  of  judgment  is  the  conscience  ; 
we  judge  ourselves  by  the  conscience,  and  other  men 
also,  and  the  conscience  is  "  that  which  is  holy "  in  us ; 
when  therefore  we  pervert  this  holy  thing  in  us  to  the 
service  of  malice,  or  of  conceit,  we  are  giving  that  which  is 
holy  unto  the  dogs,  we  are  turning  the  good  in  us  to  the 
service  of  the  evil  in  us,  we  are  giving  our  light  for  the 
use  of  our  own  evil  passions.  The  conscience  is  cast  thus 
as  pearls  before  swine,  the  upper  is  made  to  serve  the 
lower,  both  being  in  ourselves. 

In  the  same  way  another  text,  so  often  quoted,  suffered, 
he  thought,  from  being  severed   from   what  goes  before, 


XT.  76.  MISS  WEDGWOOD'S  JOURNAL.  303 

"  Come  unto  me,"  etc.  Christ  has  just  explained  why  He 
can  give  us  rest,  because  "  no  man  knoweth  the  Father  but 
the  Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  will  reveal  Him." 
"  Therefore, "  come  unto  me  and  I  will  reveal  Him,  and 
thereby  reveal  unto  you  the  only  rest. 

I  said  that  what  was  perplexing  to  me  in  the  New 
Testament  was  not  a  passage  here  and  there,  but  the 
difficulty  I  felt  in  reconciling  it  with  the  whole  fact  of 
modern  civilisation, — that  it  seemed  at  times  as  if  this  were 
condemned  by  the  Bible.  "  Oh  no,"  he  said,  "  there  is  no 
condemnation  of  civilisation  in  the  Bible,  only  of  that  in 
civilisation  which  is  idolatry;"  he  did  not  use  that  word, 
but  I  know  it  was  something  equivalent  to  it.  "  Chris- 
tianity is  uncompromising.  It  says  with  an  infinite  patience, 
but  it  says  quite  distinctly,  '  There  is  only  one  good.' 
People  now  want  to  hear  that  there  are  many  different 
sorts  of  good.  I  believe  quite  literally  that  it  is  easier  for 
a  camel  to  pass  through  the  eye  of  a  needle  than  for  a  rich 
man  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  It  needs  a 
miracle  to  keep  us  from  living  merely  in  the  world  of 
sense  and  of  intellect,  and  bring  us  into  that  of  spirit ;  to 
teach  us  that  we  are  not  sent  here  to  assimilate  the  things 
about  us,  but  to  extract  God's  meaning  from  them.  I 
have  no  belief  in  the  progress  of  the  species.  The  lesson 
of  God  does  not  seem  to  me  so  much  to  be  contained  in 
history  as  to  be  got  at  through  history.  It  is  not  that  by 
looking  at  outward  events  Ave  shall  see  any  manifestation 
of  the  righteousness  of  God.  That  is  a  common  view,  I 
know,  but  I  cannot  entertain  it.  Looking  at  things  under 
that  aspect,  God  often  appears  to  be  taking  the  part  of 
unrighteousness.  We  must  look  upon  it  merely  as  the 
school  for  the  training  of  individual  spirits,  that  to  each 
one  individually  the  message  shall  come  through  that  which 
as  a  whole  seems  to  have  no  meaning.  .  .  . 


304  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1865. 

"  I  am  much  more  sure  of  the  being  of  a  Kighteous  One 
than  I  am  of  the  existence  of  those  chairs.  If  any  one 
should  tell  me  they  were  a  delusion  I  should  not  think  it 
likely ;  I  believe  they  are  actual  things.  But  the  sense  of 
this  demand  for  righteousness  is  much  nearer  the  core  of 
my  being  than  the  outward  world." 

Sept.  20,  1865. 

Mr.  Erskine  was  speaking  of  Butler's  Analogy,  asking 
me  about  it,  as  it  was  so  long  since  he  had  read  it.  He 
went  on  to  speak  of  the  unreasonableness  of  those  who 
were  offended  by  difficulties  in  the  Bible  which  unquestion- 
ably existed  in  the  world.  "  Election,"  he  said,  "  Iioav 
unquestionable  that  is  to  any  one  who  simply  opens  his 
eyes !  The  unamiable  man  may  bend  all  his  energy  to 
subdue  what  is  wrong,  he  may  never  relax  the  struggle 
with  his  unamiable  tendencies,  and  yet  with  this  utmost 
strain  he  will  do  a  thousand  unpleasant  things  which  an 
amiable  nature  avoids  without  thought  or  effort.  Nothing 
can  be  clearer  than  " — the  inequality  of  advantage  was  what 
he  meant,  but  I  am  not  sure  of  the  exact  words.  "  Again, 
the  sins  of  the  fathers  being  visited  on  the  children.  The 
world  teaches  us  that  just  as  much  as  the  Bible.  The 
mind  that  finds  these  things  in  the  Bible  inconsistent  with 
the  righteousness  of  God  cannot  explain  them  away  in  the 
world.  There  is  the  same  answer  for  both,  that  we  are 
not  to  confound  the  process  of  education  and  its  consum- 
mation. Whatever  is  righteous  is,  eternally  is — there  is 
no  other  faith  in  God  but  that — but  not  phenomenally  is. 

"  I  know  that  some  people  speak  of  the  history  of  the 
world  as  exhibiting  the  triumph  of  good.  I  cannot  see  it ; 
I  see  a  process,  I  do  not  see  it  completed.  The  bricks  are 
being  fashioned,  I  do  not  see  the  house  being  built."  I 
asked  him  if  he  looked  for  that  ever  in  this  world,  and  he 
said  "  No.     "We  know  in  the  art  of  healing  how  large  a 


jet.  76.  MISS  WEDGWOOD'S  JOURNAL.  365 

part  of  the  process  consists  in  making  us  apparently- 
worse,  how  much  evil  must  be  turned  into  suffering 
before  it  can  be  removed.  This  is  what  we  see  going 
on.  We  see  the  evil  being  made  manifest.  Yet  I 
believe  that  those  who  denounce  the  Bible  as  containing 
things  inconsistent  with  the  righteousness  of  God  have 
sometimes  hold  of  the  most  important  truth,  that  all  His 
doings  must  be  righteous." 

I  asked  him  much  about  the  Bible — what  his  view  was 
of  its  standing,  as  compared  with  other  books.  I  put 
together  as  much  as  I  can  what  he  said  at  different  times 
in  very  fragmentary  sentences.  "  I  look  upon  the  history 
of  the  Jewish  nation  as  presenting  a  type  of  the  education 
of  an  individual  soul,  in  a  sense  which  would  not  be  true 
of  other  nations.  It  is  not  a  perfect  type  of  this  education. 
But  yet  it  approaches  it,  in  a  manner  which  you  could  not 
say  that  Greek  or  Roman  history  does."  "  That  is,"  said 
I,  "  that  it  was  not  specially  the  purpose  of  the  Greek  or 
the  Roman  education  to  teach  those  nations  to  know  God  f 
"  Yes,  just  so.  The  Jew  was  taught  to  recognise  a  righteous 
God.  He  was  no  better  than  his  neighbours  ;  in  many 
ways  he  was  worse.  A  Greek  David  would  not,  perhaps, 
have  committed  his  crimes.  But  he  recognised  the  righteous 
Being  as  they  did  not.  How  much  sin  there  is  in  those 
bequests  of  David  to  his  son  "  (the  execution  of  Shimei,  etc.), 
"  but  yet  if  we  turn  to  the  Psalms  this  same  man  acknow- 
ledges God,  knows  God,  as  the  purer  moral  natures  do  not. 
And  in  the  same  way  the  Bible  is  given  to  us  to  help  us  to 
know  God.  "We  may  know  the  Bible  and  not  God,  we 
may  know  God  and  not  the  Bible,  but  this  is  its  aim;j 
rightly  used,  it  cannot  fail  of  this." 

I  went  on  to  ask  him  if  he  did  not  feel  that  this  was 
specially  the  time  to  assert  this  true  character  of  the  Bible 
against  the  mistaken  idea  of  its  accuracy.     I  do  not  feel 


366  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKIXE.  1865. 

\  cry  clear  of  his  answer  ;  he  seems  always  so  much  attracted 
to  the  one  thought  of  the  righteousness  of  God  and  our 
right  attitude  as  mere  recipients  of  that  righteousness,  that 
it  seems  difficult  for  him  to  avert  his  attention  from  it 
enough  to  think  of  anything  that  has  no  direct  connection 
with  it.  I  said,  "  Do  we  not  want  now  to  be  delivered  from 
an  infallible  book,  as  in  the  time  of  Luther  from  an  infallible 
Church  1"  He  said  that  certainly  an  infallible  book  was 
just  the  same  kind  of  evil  as  an  infallible  Church.  But 
he  seemed  to  think  that  his  one  great  truth — the  recipiency 
of  man  as  moral  Tightness — was  somewhat  imperilled  when- 
ever this  book  was  rejected  as  infallible, — that  where  men 
turned  away  from  it,  it  was  sometimes  as  wanting  some- 
thing of  their  own. 

208.    TO  MISS  WEDGWOOD. 

Linlathejt,  5th  October  1865. 

Beloved  Snow, — I  thank  Cod  that  He  was  pleased 
to  give  you  any  help  through  your  visit  to  us.  I  have 
a  perfect  assurance  that  there  is  always  infinite  help 
and  comfort  in  Him,  and  that  all  will  finally  come  to 
know  this;  but  I  often  feel  desponding  enough  for  the 
details.  I  hope  you  will  learn,  what  I  am  always  hoping 
to  learn,  to  rejoice  in  God  continually,  knowing  that  He  is 
really  ordering  all  your  circumstances  to  the  one  end  of 
making  you  a  partaker  of  His  own  goodness  and  bringing 
you  within  His  own  sympathy.  I  thank  you  for  your 
love ;  it  is  most  precious  to  me ;  and  for  your  offer  of 
service,  which  I  should  like  to  profit  by  if  I  knew  how, 
but  I  am  so  stupid  that  I  cannot  receive  help  from  another, 
— I  need  to  do  things  in  my  own  way,  and  yet  I  can't 
do  them. 

I  am  glad  you  are  with  Mrs.  Rich ;   I  should  like  well 


,ET.  76.  MISS  WEDGWOOD.  3(17 

to  be  of  the  party.  Give  her  our  most  affectionate 
regards.  She  has  not  many  older  friends  now,  or  who 
love  and  value  her  more.  My  sisters  send  you  their  love. 
If  we  live  a  little  longer  Ave  may  perhaps  see  you  again 
in  this  world. — Ever  affectionately  yours, 

T.  Erskine. 


368  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1865. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

Letters  of  1865  and  1S66. 

"Although  there  are  many  delightful  residences  in 
Scotland,  and  much  delightful  society,  yet  I  can  recall  none 
which  combined  the  charms  of  Polloc.  There,  particularly 
in  his  later  days,  Mr.  Erskine  was  frequently  to  be  found, 
more  especially  when,  after  Lady  Matilda's  death,  Sir  John 
was  left  in  much  bodily  suffering  to  fight  the  battle  of  life 
alone,  a  battle  which  he  fought  bravely  to  the  last." l  And 
at  the  last  Mr.  Erskine  was  by  his  side, — the  wonderful 
history  given  in  his  letter  to  Miss  Wedgwood  (see  p. 
353,  12th  June)  being  that  of  his  visit  to  Polloc,  and  Sir 
John  Maxwell's  death,  which  then  occurred.  Writing  to 
Bishop  Ewing  on  the  funeral  day,  June  10th,  Mr.  Erskine 
says,  "  This  is  a  great  affliction.  All  who  knew  Sir  John 
felt  he  filled  a  great  space  in  their  minds,  and  will  probably 
feel  this  more, now  that  he  is  removed,  than  they  had  thought. 
I  was  thankful  to  have  been  here  so  as  to  have  met  his 
love  again  before  he  was  taken  home.  But  I  felt  most 
deeply  my  own  unhelpfulness." 

209.    TO  LADY  AUGUSTA  STANLEY. 

Linlathen,  June  1865. 
You  know  already  that  our  excellent  friend  has  been 
relieved  of  his  heavy  burden.  .  .  . 

1  Bishop  Ewing's  Present  Day  Papers,  No.  16,  pp.  15,  16. 


i«T.  76.  BISHOP  EWING.  369 


The  conflict  was  terminated  on  Monday  morning,  a  little 
before  six  o'clock,  and  the  place  which  he  filled  in  the  world 
is  now  empty.  The  place  which  he  filled  in  the  hearts  of 
his  friends  is  not  empty,  however;  his  simple  upright 
loyalty  of  nature  will  never  pass  from  the  memories  of 
those  who  have  known  him.  He  was  a  brother  man,  full 
of  affection1  and  full  of  sympathy  for  the  sorrows  and  priva- 
tions of  the  poor.  He  deeply  felt  the  responsibility  of  life, 
and  of  all  worldly  possessions  and  advantages.  It  is  now 
eight  years  since  that  dear  one2  was  taken  away.  I  feel 
that  it  is  only  by  abiding  in  God,  in  the  spiritual  realisa- 
tion of  His  loving  presence  and  care,  that  we  can  rightly 
receive  these  events.  In  that  large  hand  all  things  are 
treasured  up,  and  in  that  eternal  purpose  all  things  are 
carrying  forward  towards  their  desired  haven.  Farewell. 
— Ever  affectionately  yours,  T.  Erskine. 

210.   TO  BISHOP  EWING. 

Linlathen,  June  20,  1865. 
My  dear  Bishop, — Beloved  Sir  John,  his  face  is  seldom 
absent  from  me,  and  the  thought  of  the  way  he  would  look 
at  things  constantly  presents  itself.  I  never  loved  a  man 
so  well,  from  whom  I  could  expect  so  little  sympathy  in 
any  of  the  trains  of  speculative  thought  which  were 
peculiarly  interesting  and  occupying  to  myself.  But  there 
was  a  substance  of  goodness  and  nobleness  in  his  character 
which  could  both  give  and  receive  a  deeper  sympathy  than 
mere  thought  could.  I  had  given  him  a  special  place  in  my 
habitual  prayers  ;  so  that  now  the  remembrance  of  him 
always  recurs  at  the  stated  times,  and  sometimes  I  find  I 
can  commit  him  to  the  care  and  loving  guidance  of  our 

1  His  nightly  habit  was  to  stand  at  the  door  after  family  worship  and 
shake  hands  with  each  of  the  servants  as  they  passed. 
a  Lady  Matilda  Maxwell,  Lady  Augusta's  elder  sister.     See  p.  332. 
2  A 


370  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1865. 

Father,  just  as  when  he  was  with  us.  .  .  .  — Ever  affec- 
tionately yours,  T.  Erskine. 

211,   TO  MRS  A.  J.  SCOTT. 

Linlathen,  6th  Nov.  1865. 

Dear  Mrs.  Scott, — I  am  happy  to  think  of  my  dear 

friend — your  husband — in  that  beautiful  country,  which 

contains  so  much  that  is  fitted  to  tranquillise  the  heart.     I 

lived  once  at  Veytaux  for  a  few  weeks,  and  the  picture  of 

the  head  of  the  lake,  and  of  the  opposite  side,  the  Meillerie 

I  think  they  called  it,  often  returns  to  me  as  a  revelation  of 

mercy  and  peace  from  the  Creator.    I  have  many  cherished 

recollections  connected  with  that  country — of  persons  and 

circumstances,  which  make  up  a  remarkable  stratum  of  my 

life,  to  which  I  can  still  return  with  ever  fresh  interest. 

I  have  several  such  strata  cprite  distinct  from  each  other 

in  their  character  and  composition.     One  is  the  Gareloch, 

with    the    Row    and    Roseneath,  in  which  Scott's  figure 

appears ;  and  the  walks  and  talks  I  had  with  him  return, 

not  as  fossil  remains,  but  full  of  life.     No  section  of  my 

life,  however,  has  been  free  from  sorrow  and  remorse ;  and 

I  can  only  feel  reconciled  to  past  memories  by  the  belief 

that   our  heavenly  Father  has  had,  through  the  whole 

history,  the  purpose  of  educating  my  spirit,  and  teaching 

me  to  know  Himself,  as  a  friend  who  was  perfectly  to  be 

depended  on,  and  who  had  brought  me  into  being,  with 

a  capacity  of  entering  into  His  purposes,  and  sympathising 

with  Him  in  them,  and  who  had  been  seeking  through  life 

to  develop  that  capacity  in  me, — I  mean  the  capacity  of 

sympathy  with  Himself.     We  are  just  preparing  to  go  in 

to  Edinburgh  for  the  winter.     Our  summer  has  been  most 

magnificent.     We  have  had  more  fine  days  in  it  than  in 

any  year  for  the  last  half  century  at  least. 

Dear   Mrs.   Scott,  give  my  loving  regards  and  affec- 


JET.  77.  DR.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL.  371 

tionate  sympathies  to  your  husband.  My  sister  Mrs. 
Stirling  adds  her  contribution  of  kind  wishes,  as  Mrs. 
Paterson  would,  if  she  were  here,  but  she  is  in  Edinburgh. 
— Yours  affectionately,  T.  Erskine. 

Of  a  visit  paid  by  him  to  Mr.  Erskine  during  the  fol- 
lowing month,  Dr.  Campbell  writes  : — 

DR.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL  TO  HIS  SON. 

Laurel  Bank,  28</t  December  1865. 

I  WENT,  I  think  you  know,  to  Edinburgh  in  consequence 
of  an  invitation  from  Mrs.  Stirling,  who  thought  her  brother 
would  be  the  better  of  a  visit  from  me ;  and,  in  a  letter 
to-day  he  says  he  has  been ;  although  feeling  (as  I  too 
feel  partly)  that  we  had  not  made  the  most  of  our  time — 
so  much  was  left  unsaid.  We  always  breakfasted  alone, 
and  sat  together  for  a  while  after  breakfast,  till  we  went 
up-stairs  to  have  the  reading  of  the  Psalms  and  lessons  of 
the  day  with  Mrs.  Stirling.  We  had  had  worship  with 
the  household  before  breakfast,  Mr.  Erskine  always  praying 
(I  prayed  only  on  Sunday  evening,  when  I  also  expounded 
at  considerable  length.)  We  were  again  alone  together  at 
night  for  a  short  time.  Each  day  guests  to  dinner.  Our 
parties  were  not  large,  and  were  easy  and  pleasant.  .  .  . 

My  visit  was  to  him,  and  its  deepest  interest  was  that 
which  he  gave  it.  We  still  do  not  see  eye  to  eye  in  some 
things  of  deep  moment ;  as  to  which  my  comfort  was 
limited  to  the  consciousness  that  I  had  been  enabled  simply 
to  present  my  objections  for  his  consideration.  But  in  the 
great  thing — the  living  faith  that  God  is  love — I  have  had. 
as  usual,  most  quickening  sympathy  with  my  friend ;  and 
I  have  also  felt  that  our  intercourse,  even  when  regarding 
what  we  see  differently,  was  such  as  necessitated  on  my 
part, — as,  I  trust,  on  his  also, — an  inward  uplooking  in 
prayer,  which  raised  one  into  the  Invisible  and  Eternal, 


372  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1866. 

and   strengthened,   by  exercising  it,  direct   faith   in   the 
living  God.  .  .  . 


212.   TO  THE  REV.  J.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL. 

11  Great  Stuart  St.,  V\lh  Jan.  1866. 

Dear  Friend  and  Brother, — Enclosed  is  Mrs.  Scott's 
announcement  of  her  husband's  death.  To  me  it  appears 
a  merciful  release  of  a  wonderful  prisoner,  whose  life  for 
long  has  been  a  painful  struggle.  No  man  whom  I  have 
known  has  impressed  me  more  than  Scott,1  and  I  have 
always  received  unchanging  love  from  him.  Poor  Mrs. 
Scott  will  feel  as  if  her  occupation  were  gone. 

Our  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God. — Ever  affectionately 
yours,  T.  Erskine. 

He  reckoned  you  and  me  his  chief  friends. 

213.    TO  MRS.  A.  J.  SCOTT. 

ISth  Jan.  1866. 

Beloved  Mrs.  Scott, — The  cup  that  my  Father  hath 
o-iven  me,  shall  I  not  drink  it  ?  What  a  wonderful  history 
is  man's  life!  Great  gifts  given,  and  then  apparently 
withdrawn,  but  surely  only  apparently,  for  the  greatest 
gift  of  all  remains  as  a  pledge  and  assurance  that  nothing 
good  can  ever  really  be  withdrawn.  Thanks  be  to  God 
for  that  unspeakable  gift,  in  whom  all  others  are  gathered 

UP- 

I  look  back  on  my  first  acquaintance  with  him — in  his 

youthful  beauty— and  with  that  rich  endowment  of  mental 

1  "  Laurel  Bank,  2>\st  January  1866.— I  was  for  ten  days  with  dear  Mr. 
Erskine,  for  which  I  was  very  thankful.  You  did  not  know  our  valued 
friend  Scott,  of  whom  Erskine  says  '  that  he  impressed  him  more  than  any 
other  man  had,  and  of  whom  I  can  say  the  same. ' " — (Extract  from  letter  of 
Dr.  M'Leod  Campbell  to  Bishop  Ewing ;  Memorials,  etc.,  vol.  ii.  p.  119, 
see  also  vol.  i.  p.  281.) 


AST.  77.  REV.  J.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL.  373 

power  and  spiritual  understanding.  I  recall  my  walks  and 
talks  with  him  by  the  side  of  the  Gareloch ;  and  the 
unfailing,  loving,  and  admiring  interest  which  I  have  ever 
since  felt  in  himself  and  in  his  thoughts  and  movements.  I 
remember  him  in  that  country  where  you  now  are,  when  I 
introduced  him  to  Vinet  and  some  of  my  Genevan  friends. 
I  remember  his  father  telling  me,  with  such  approval 
and  satisfaction,  of  his  engagement  to  you,  and  himself 
taking  me  to  see  your  brother,  Alan  Ker.  I  felt  him  to  be 
a  precious  gift  from  God ;  I  felt  that  he  always  took  God's 
side  in  all  his  intercourse  with  his  fellow-creatures.  Dear 
Mrs.  Scott !  you  know  there  is  a  great  blessing  intended 
for  you  in  this  deep  sorrow.  May  the  God  of  all  grace 
help  you  to  open  your  mouth  wide,  that  you  may  lose  none 
of  it. 

I  thank  you  for  writing  to  me.  You  will  feel  that 
Susie's  being  with  him  and  with  you  at  this  time  was  a 
gracious  appointment — as  well  as  your  dear  sisters.  After 
getting  your  letter  I  went  to  my  sister,  Mrs.  Paterson, 
and  Mrs.  Erskine ;  how  Jane  would  have  felt  it ! — Ever 
affectionately  yours,  T.  Erskine. 

Mrs.  Stirling  desires  to  be  remembered  to  you  with  her 
deep  sympathy. 
Great  Stuart  Street,  Edinburgh. 

214.   TO  THE  REV,  J.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL. 

11  Great  Stuart  St.,  19th  Jan.  1866. 
Dear  Mr.  Campbell, — Our  letters  crossed.  I  know 
how  much  you  will  feel  this  death,  the  death  of  this  very 
remarkable  man,  interesting  to  you  in  so  many  ways  as  a 
faithful,  loving  friend,  as  a  profound  thinker,  as  a  spirit  of 
noble  dimensions.1     When  I  first  met  him,  he  opened  him- 

1  For  a  short  notice  of  Mr.  Scott,  see  Appendix  No.  IV. 


374  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1866. 

self  to  me,  delighted  apparently  both  to  give  and  to  receive 
confidence  and  intimacy. 

I  have  found  him  somewhat  changed  in  that  respect,  and 
yet  I  believe  that  it  was  no  change  of  feeling,  but  a  diffi- 
culty in  his  nature,  for  I  have  always  felt  that  he  gave  me 
one  of  the  first  places  in  his  friendship. 

As  to  your  own  letter.  When  you  speak  to  me  of  the 
love  of  God,  I  always  feel  sure  that  you  mean  a  love  which 
includes  and  implies  righteousness,  and  I  had  hoped  that 
you  would  interpret  me  in  the  same  way.  In  fact  I  would 
say  that,  in  contrasting  the  fatherhood  of  God  with  His 
judgeship,  I  meant  the,  first  to  represent  a  righteousness 
which  seeks  to  communicate  itself,  and  the  second  a 
righteousness  which  seeks  to  vindicate  itself,  and  I  intended 
to  say  that  the  second  was  put  in  action,  in  subserviency 
to  the  first. 

If  you  see  Dr.  Norman  M'Leod,  I  wish  you  would  tell 
him  that  I  was  much  gratified  by  his  sending  me  his  address 
on  "  The  Sabbath."  I  believe  that  he  is  contending  for 
realities  against  shadows,  which  is  always  a  good  warfare. 
I  have  not  answered  or  rather  acknowledged  it.  I  would 
do  so  if  I  could  do  it  rightly. — Yours  affectionately, 

T.  Erskine. 

215.    TO  THE  REV.  WM.  TAIT. 

31  Charlotte  Square,  7th  Feb.  1866. 
Dear  old  Friend, — Although  I  never  think  of  you  but 
as  a  youth,  having  before  my  mind's  eye  the  form  in  which 
I  knew  you  thirty-eight  years  ago,  I  am  sorry  for  the 
cause  that  takes  you  to  Pau,  yet  I  hope  that  it  may  be  for 
further  good  than  the  restoration  of  Mrs.  Tait's  health. 
When  I  hear  of  such  a  congregation  as  that  which  you 
describe,  as  given  over  to  your  ministrations  for  some 
months,  I  sometimes  feel  as  if  I  should  like  to  tell  them 


*5T.  77.  REV.    W.    TAIT.  375 

something  myself.  It  was  a  curious  gospel  that  Lucretius  N% 
preached  to  the  Romans  of  his  time,  "  There  are  no  gods," 
— hurrah  !  and  yet  it  was  a  real  gospel  in  his  mind.  He 
meant  to  tell  them  that  in  the  government  of  the  Universe 
there  was  no  caprice  nor  favouritism, — no  selfish  seeking 
for  honours  or  sacrifices,  no  malice  nor  jealousy  to  be 
gratified,  no  Venus,  nor  Mars,  nor  Juno,  who  ruled  the 
affairs  of  men  for  their  own  private  views  and  piques  and  in- 
terests, and  not  on  any  general  principle  of  good, — but  fixed 
eternal  laws  of  justice  and  righteousness.  I  have  a  great 
sympathy  with  the  old  poet,  and  am  sure  that  he  would 
have  welcomed  a  fuller  gospel,  if  it  had  been  suggested  to 
him,  a  gospel  declaring  that  not  inexorable  laws,  however 
just  and  righteous,  but  a  Being  whose  righteousness  is 
love,  guides  and  rules  the  Universe,  and  that  His  one 
unchangeable  purpose  in  creating  and  sustaining  man  is  to 
make  him  a  partaker  in  His  own  blessedness,  by  making 
him  a  partaker  in  His  own  righteousness,  and  that  all  the 
events  of  life,  the  infinite  variety  and  complication  of  joys 
and  sorrows,  and  duties  and  relations,  in  which  we  find 
ourselves  involved,  constitute  the  education  by  which  He 
would  train  and  lead  us  to  that  great  consummation. 
Whatever  happens  to  us  contains  this  loving  purpose  in  it, 
and  so  may  be  welcomed  by  us  as  a  manifestation  of  it, 
and  should  be  studied  by  us  that  we  may  enter  into  all  its 
meaning.  For  until  we  enter  into  it,  and  become  fellow- 
workers  with  God  in  working  out  our  own  education,  we 
remain  unprofitcd  by  it.  The  purpose  remains,  but  remains 
fruitless,  so  long  as  we  remain  neutrals  or  resistors  of  the 
work.  There  are  few  religious  phrases  that  have  had  such 
a  power  of  darkening  men's  minds,  as  to  their  true  relation 
to  God,  as  the  common  phrase  that  we  are  here  in  a  state 
of  probation — under  trial,  as  it  were.  We  are  not  in  a 
state  of  trial,  we  are  in  a  process  of  education,  directed  by 


376  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1866. 

that  eternal  purpose  of  love  which  brought  us  into  being. 
It  is  impossible  to  have  a  true  confidence  in  God  whilst 
we  feel  ourselves  in  a  state  of  trial ;  we  must  necessarily 
regard  Him,  not  as  a  Father,  but  as  a  Judge,  and  we  must 
be  occupied  with  the  thought  how  we  are  to  pass  our  trial. 
We  know  our  own  unworthiness,  and  though  we  know  that 
we  have  a  Saviour,  there  must  still  be  a  degree  of  alarm  in 
the  thought  of  that  judgment-seat.  But  when  we  have 
once  realised  the  idea  that  we  are  in  a  process  of  education, 
which  God  will  carry  on  to  its  fulfilment,  however  long  it 
may  take,  we  feel  that  the  loving  purpose  of  our  Father  is 
ever  resting  on  us,  and  that  the  events  of  life  are  not 
appointed  as  testing  us,  whether  we  will  choose  God's  will 
or  our  own,  but  real  lessons  to  train  us  into  making  the 
right  choice.  If  probation  is  our  thought,  then  forgiveness 
or  receiving  a  favourable  sentence  is  our  object;  if  education 
is  our  thought,  then  progress  in  holiness  is  our  object.  If 
I  believe  myself  in  a  state  of  education,  every  event,  even 
death  itself,  becomes  a  manifestation  of  God's  eternal 
purpose ;  on  the  probation  system,  Christ  appears  as  the 
deliverer  from  a  condemnation ;  on  the  education  system 
He  appears  as  the  deliverer  from  sin  itself. 

My  sister  Mrs.  Paterson  often  speaks  of  you,  and  likes 
to  look  back  on  past  scenes — as  well  as  forward.  She  had 
enjoyed  your  tract *  very  much,  as  also  had  Mrs.  Stirling. 
I  shall  be  most  glad  to  make  your  son's  acquaintance. 
Give  our  affectionate  regards  to  your  wife,  and  receive  the 
same  to  yourself.     Farewell,  dear  man. — Ever  truly  yours, 

T.  Erskin|;. 

216.    TO  MISS  WEDGWOOD. 

11  Great  Stuart  Street,  \§th  Feb.  1866. 
My  dear  Snow, — I  am  glad  that  it  was  you  who  wrote 
that  article  on  Scott.     I  should  have  welcomed  it  from  any 
1  "The  Open  Latch." 


/ET.   77. 


MRS.  MACHAR.  377 

one,  but  I  am  happy  that  it  comes  from  one  whom  I  know 
and  love  as  I  do  you.  When  I  first  knew  him  he  was  very 
open  and  communicative,  but  he  had  then  less  to  communi- 
cate, and  what  he  had  was  less  complicated,  less  dependent 
for  its  intelligibility  on  the  understanding  of  many  other 
things  related  to  it.  I  often  wondered  at  the  number  and 
variety  of  matters  in  which  he  evidently  took  interest,  and 
which  he  had  made  himself  master  of,  and  yet  I  always 
felt  that  he  never  lost  sight  of  the  relation  of  each  depart- 
ment to  the  great  whole, — the  place  which  it  held  in  the 
hierarchy  of  things.  I  believe  that  God  was  a  great  real- 
ity to  him.  I  am  happy  to  think  that  you  have  pleasant 
remembrances  of  your  visit,  and  hope  that  you  may  be 
inclined  to  repeat  it.  There  are  not  many  from  whom  I 
anticipate  the  same  kind  of  sympathy  that  I  do  from  you, 
and  I  feel  that  it  is  a  great  reason  for  thankfulness  to  find 
in  a  younger  generation  those  who  may  in  some  measure 
fill  the  places  that  have  become  vacant. 

Well-beloved  Snow,  may  the  blessing  of  God  guide  and 
comfort  you. — Ever  affectionately  yours,      T.  Erskine. 

Give  my  love  to  Mrs.  Rich,  and  my  best  regards  to  your 
father  and  mother. 

217.    TO  MRS.  MACHAR. 

Edinburgh,  April  1866. 
There  are  few  people  now  alive  whom  I  have  known 
longer  than  I  have  known  you,  and  certainly  there  are  none 
in  whose  regard  I  have  more  confidence.  True  love  is 
divine  love,  coming  from  God  and  going  to  God.  I  am 
just  now  engaged  in  writing  a  work  which  I  trust  God  will 
enable  me  to  accomplish  for  the  benefit  of  some  of  my 
fellow-creatures.  I  am  exceedingly  anxious  to  get  through 
with  it  before  my  eyes  fail,  which  must  be  soon,  as  it  seems 


378  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1866. 

the  cataract  is  making  rapid  progress.  I  therefore  grudge 
the  time  and  eyesight  spent  on  writing  other  things,  and  I 
feel  it  almost  a  duty  to  abstain  from  work  of  this  kind. 
Pray  God  that  I  may  seek  God's  glory  alone,  and  may  be 
preserved  from  seeking  my  own  glory.  I  trust  it  may  please 
God  to  scatter  those  Fenian  raiders,  and  to  use  them  as 
inducements  for  men  to  take  refuge  under  the  shadow  of 
His  wings.  Our  country  is  in  a  strange  state.  This  Eeform 
Bill  seems  like  the  breaking  down  of  barriers  so  as  to  allow 
the  inrush  of  all  disorders.  We  want  wisdom  to  govern 
us,  not  numerical  majorities.  True  liberty  consists  in  being 
delivered  from  our  own  vain  passions  and  appetites  and 
selfish  will,  and  it  would  seem  that  many  now  think  that 
liberty  consists  in  the  indulgence  of  these  things,  and  that 
the  restraint  of  these  is  slavery.  Farewell,  the  Father's  love 
be  your  dwelling-place. — Yours,  etc.,  T.  Erskine. 

218.    TO  THE  REV.  THOMAS  WRIGHT  MATHEWS. 

Great  Stuart  Street,  Edinburgh,  16tfi  April  1866. 
My  dear  Friend, — You  will  be  almost  angry  at  my 
presuming  to  answer  your  respectable  letter  on  such  a  con- 
temptible piece  of  note-paper  as  this,  but  my  capacity  of 
writing  is  now  much  limited  (by  cataract  in  both  eyes), 
and  I  am  anxious,  before  I  am  quite  blind,  to  finish  an  essay 
which  I  have  now  under  my  hand,  and  which  I  hope  may 
by  God's  blessing  be  helpful  to  some  of  my  fellow-creatures. 
This  makes  me  brief  in  letter-writing.  I  believe  that  the 
fact  of  Carlyle  being  my  guest  whilst  he  was  in  Edinburgh 
for  the  purpose  of  being  installed  Lord  Rector  of  the  Uni- 
versity was  the  chief  reason  of  my  being  honoured  with 
the  LL.D.  degree.  Of  course  nobody  calls  me  Dr.,  except 
for  fun.  Well,  we  are  in  the  land  of  living  men,  amidst 
very  wonderful  things.     Assuredly  the  light  is  advancing, 


«t.  77.  THOMAS  CARLYLE.  379 

and  I  believe  there  are  now  more  men  in  the  country  really 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  truth,  practically,  than  there  have 
been  at  any  former  period,  but  the  disorder  is  very  great. 
Men  forget  that  they  are  branches  and  not  trees,  and  so  the 
fruit  is  not  of  the  right  kind — wild  grapes,  .  .  . 

T.  Erskine. 

MR.  CARLYLE  TO  MR.  ERSKINE. 

SCOTSBRIG,  EcCLEFECHAN,  Y]tll  April  1866. 

Dear  Mr.  Erskine, — This  is  almost  the  first  day  I  have 
had  any  composure;  and  I  cannot  but  write  you  a  little  word 
of  gratitude,  to  Mrs.  Stirling  and  you,  for  your  cordial 
reception  of  me  in  my  late  shipwrecked  state,  and  your 
unwearied  patience  with  me,  during  the  whole  of  the  late 
adventure.  Now  that  it  is  all  comfortably  over,  and  a  thing 
to  look  thankfully  back  upon,  there  is  no  feature  of  it 
prettier  to  me  than  that  your  kind  chamber  in  the  wall 
should  have  been  my  safe  lodging-place  (three  "  chambers" 
or  almost  four,  as  Cairns  well  knows  !),  and  that  there,  with 
the  very  clock  silenced  for  me,  I  should  have  been  so  affec- 
tionately sheltered.1  Thanks  for  this,  as  for  the  crown  of 
a  long  series  of  kindnesses,  precious  to  remember  for  the 
rest  of  my  days. 

I  intend  home,  probably  Monday  next — from  Dumfries, 
my  penult  and  one  remaining  shift.  I  sprained  my  ankle 
a  week  ago,  but  it  is  mending ; — and  otherwise  the  scene 
altogether  is  touching,  tender,  and  mournfully  beautiful 
to  me.  I  wrote  a  little  word  to  Lady  Ruthven,  as  you 
suggested.  I  am  still  deepish  in  Notes,  and  ought  to  be 
in  the  woods  of  Springkell  on  my  solitary  rides  of  medita- 
tion rather. 

With  many  grateful  regards  to  Madam  and  yourself,  I 
remain  always  yours  sincerely,  T.  Carlyle. 

1  See  page  535. 


380  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1866. 

219.    TO  MISS  WEDGWOOD. 

Linlathen,  Broughty-Ferry,  19th  Sept.  1866. 

Beloved  Snow, — I  hope  you  are  persuaded  of  my  deep 
sense  of  the  filial  services  which  you  have  rendered  me,  and 
of  my  devoted  love  to  you.  I  miss  you  much,  for  myself 
and  also  for  others.  Mr.  Camphell  is  now  with  us.  I 
should  have  liked  well  that  you  had  met  him — he  has  such 
pleasure  in  communicating  himself,  and  weighing  all  diffi- 
culties and  suggestions.  I  never  saw  a  man  so  liberal 
whose  spirit  is  so  solemnised.  You  rarely  meet  with  these 
two  qualities  in  combination. 

We  have  had  Jowett  also,  who  is  of  a  different  type,  but 
very  good,  being  full  of  knowledge  and  political  fervour, 
and  thoroughly  imbued  with  Plato. — Ever  most  affection- 
ately yours,  T.  Erskine. 

The  day  after  this  letter  was  written,  Mr.  Campbell 
bimself  writes  : — 

TO  BISHOP  EWING. 

Linlathen,  20th  Sept.  1866. 

.  .  .  Since  I  came  here  I  have  been  referring  to  my 
little  book,  Christ  the  Bread  of  Life,  in  conversation  with 
Mr.  Erskine,  and  am  glad  to  find  that  his  impression  of  its 
clearness  and  fulness  agrees  with  my  own.  So  I  hope  that 
in  now  re-reading  it  with  the  benefit  of  all  your  recent 
thought  on  the  subject  of  transubstantiation  you  may  find 
it  satisfying.  .  .  . 

It  is  now  the  24th,  and  I  am  finishing  my  letter  after 
my  return  to  Parkhill.  I  am  thankful  for  another  visit 
to  Linlathen.  I  meet  in  no  one  the  same  full  realisation 
of  the  gift  of  God  as  Eternal  Life — the  Life  of  Christ  to 
be  our  life — that  I  see  in  Mr.  Erskine ;  and  this  is  a  bond 
of  the  most  sacred  kind.  .  .  . 


jet.  78.  MISS  WEDGWOOD.  381 

220.   TO  MISS  WEDGWOOD. 

Linlathen,  5th  November  1866. 

Well-beloved  Governess, — I  am  most  grateful  to  you 
for  your  enduring  love,  which  is  to  me  of  great  price. 

I  rejoice  in  Maurice's  appointment,  thinking  him  the  fittest 
man  in  the  kingdom  for  the  special  chair,  and  moreover 
thinking  that  the  infusion  of  his  character  into  the  thoughts 
of  the  young  Cambridge  men  would  be  and  will  be  an  in- 
valuable element  in  their  education.  He  is  a  Felix  Holt 
divinised,  in  one  portion  of  his  being,  and  how  many  por- 
tions has  he,  untouched  by  Felix  %  In  comparing  him  to 
Felix,  I  mean  merely  to  say  that  he  is  prepared  to  carry 
out  all  his  convictions  without  any  cowardly  hesitations. 
As  Erasmus  described  the  difference  between  himself  and 
Luther,  when  some  flattering  friend  was  giving  him  the 
first  place,  by  saying,  I  can  write,  but  Luther  can  burn. 
Maurice  can  do  both, — Ever  affectionately  yours, 

T.  Erskine. 


382  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1840. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

Letters  on  Select  Subjects. 
L—  PLYMOUTHISM. 

221.    TO  MRS.  BURNETT. 

Cadder,  17th  March  1840. 
.  .  .  What  you  say  about  the  Plymouth  Church  interests 
me  very  much.  I  have  not  seen  much  of  them,  but  I 
have  heard  a  good  deal  about  them,  and  have  known 
some  of  them.  I  am  inclined  to  think  them  very  confined, 
and  too  exclusive.  They  convert  spiritual  principles  into 
formal  rules,  which  seems  to  me  a  canker  in  the  root  of 
Christianity.  Thus  we  read,  "  Love  not  the  world,  nor  the 
things  of  the  world ; "  this  is  a  spiritual  principle,  which 
ought  to  be  received  into  our  hearts,  so  that  God's  judgment 
and  favour,  and  not  man's,  in  all  things  is  to  be  considered 
and  sought  after  under  the  influence  of  this  principle.  If 
I  am  really  conscious  to  myself  of  a  desire  to  do  God's  will, 
I  may  conform  myself  to  every  human  decency,  and  to 
everything  that  is  of  good  report,  and  even  to  every  form 
or  custom  which  is  in  itself  indifferent  and  not  sinful,  and 
in  doing  this  I  am  Christ's  freeman,  living  not  under  a 
letter,  but  under  a  spiritual  law.  But  when  I  interpret 
this  "  Love  not  the  world"  into  a  prohibition  to  conform 
to  certain  customs  of  dress  or  housekeeping  or  behaviour, 
I  am  turning  the  spirit  into  a  letter,  and  although  in  my 
own  particular  case  I  may  still  be  in  the  spirit  and  free, 


x.t.  51.  MXS.  BURNETT.  383 

yet  in  the  case  of  others,  who  adopt  my  sentiments,  the 
probability  is  that  my  judgment  may  in  this  matter 
weigh  a  good  deal  with  them,  and  when  we  have  formed 
a  society  on  these  views  the  general  opinion  of  the  society 
will  in  a  great  measure  bind  the  consciences  of  the  indi- 
vidual members,  so  that  in  truth  the  society  comes  between 
them  and  God,  and  thus  becomes  a  "  world"  to  them,  as 
hurtful  in  its  degree  to  their  spiritual  condition  before 
God  as  the  outer  world  can  be. 

I  should  also  be  disposed  to  think  that  the  Plymouth 
Brethren  do  not  form  to  themselves  a  large  enough  idea  of 
human  nature  in  its  right  state,  and  of  the  education  which 
befits  it.  Thus,  I  could  suppose  that  they  would  not  like 
their  children  to  read  Shakespeare.  I  don't  know  this  for  a 
fact,  but  my  idea  of  them  suggests  this  supposition.  Now,  I 
think  it  is  of  immense  importance  to  see  that  every  move- 
ment towards  the  extension  of  man's  capacities  and  faculties 
is  in  itself  good,  and  may  and  ought  to  be  made  by  the 
person  who  makes  it,  and  to  be  studied  by  the  person  who 
studies  it,  to  the  Lord.  There  is  nothing  unholy  in  philo- 
sophy, or  poetry,  or  knowledge,  or  art,  or  taste  whatever  in 
themselves,  but  only  in  prosecuting  them  in  a  selfish,  in- 
dependent, ungodly  spirit.  Christ  has  redeemed  the  whole 
humanity,  the  whole  capacities  and  faculties  of  man,  so  that 
all  our  doings  should  be  holy,  whether  we  sing,  or  paint,  or 
whatever  we  do.  Religion  should  be  a  sap  flowing  through 
the  branches  of  man's  life,  consecrating  the  whole  of  the 
products.  Life  is  not  divided  into  religious  and  secular 
parts ;  all  should  be  religious,  because  it  is  a  spirit  and  not 
a  mere  letter  which  God  has  bestowed  on  us  in  Christ.  The 
world  is  a  temple,  or  ought  to  be,  and  the  business  of  life 
ought  to  be  the  services  of  a  temple.  Perhaps  I  have  multi- 
plied words  here  to  excess,  but  I  see  much  bondage  produced 
by  ignorance  of  this.     When  I  read  Plato  or  Shakespeare 


384  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1840. 

in  a  spirit  entirely  different  from  that  in  which  I  allow 
myself  to  read  the  Bible,  I  am  wrong.  The  testimony  which 
the  Plymouth  Brethren  bear  against  the  conformity  of  the 
Church  to  the  world,  and  against  Christians  spending  their 
money  as  worldly  people  do,  I  entirely  approve,  and  sympa- 
thise with  in  principle  and  spirit.  The  individual  amongst 
them  whom  I  knew  best  was  and  is  painfully  to  me  Cal- 
vinistic  in  his  view  of  doctrines,  limiting  the  love  of  God,  etc. 
I  don't  know  whether  this  is  universal  amongst  them. 

With  regard  to  the  extracts  from  Law,  I  don't  much 
wonder  at  what  you  say,  and  yet  I  cannot  help  thinking  that 
your  objection  is  more  against  words  than  realities.  You 
disapprove  of  saying  of  an  unconverted  man  that  "  Christ  is 
in  him,"  or  that  "  the  Holy  Spirit  is  in  him."  You  say 
that  such  expressions  are  unscriptural,  and  give  false  ideas. 
But  consider  a  moment  Law's  meaning.  He  means  to  say 
that  a  man  who  refuses  to  believe  the  truth  of  God,  or  to 
submit  to  the  authority  of  God,  is  culpable  in  so  doing. 
Now,  why  or  how  is  he  culpable  1  Simply  because  he  might 
do  otherwise.  If  he  could  not  do  otherwise  we  might  pity 
him,  but  we  could  not  blame  him.  The  man  is  capable 
then  of  apprehending  the  truth  and  the  authority  of  God. 
But  how  is  he  capable  1  Spiritual  things  can  only  be  dis- 
cerned by  the  Spirit.  If  the  Spirit  of  God  is  not  within 
his  reach,  so  that  he  may  make  use  of  it  in  the  apprehen- 
sion of  divine  truth,  he  is  incapable  of  apprehending  it,  and 
therefore  cannot  easily  be  considered  responsible  for  not 
doing  it.  I  am  thus  led  to  conclude  that  the  Spirit  is  in  such 
a  way  and  sense  present  in  every  man,  that  the  man,  if  he 
will  yield  himself  up  to  its  instruction,  giving  up  his  own 
self-wisdom,  may  so  use  it  as  to  apprehend  the  things  of 
God  by  it.  And  I  believe  further  that  the  Spirit  is  there 
for  that  very  end,  and  it  is  pressing  itself  on  the  attention 
and  acceptance  of  every  man,  and  that  the  man's  continu- 


jet.  51.  MRS.  BURNETT.  385 

ance  in  darkness  and  sin  is  in  fact  nothing  else  than  a  con- 
tinued resistance  to  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is  in  this  sense 
that  I  understand  the  words  of  God  to  Noah,  *  My  Spirit 
shall  not  always  strive  with  man,"  etc.,  and  Stephen's 
words  to  the  Jews,  "  Ye  do  always  resist  the  Holy 
Ghost :  as  your  fathers  did,  so  do  ye."  It  is  in  the 
same  sense  also  that  I  understand  the  whole  book  of 
Proverbs,  "  Wisdom  crying  to  the  sons  of  men ;"  "  The 
spirit  of  a  man  is  the  candle  of  the  Lord,"  etc.  In 
this  same  sense  also  I  understand  Jesus  standing  at 
the  door  and  knocking.  Now,  is  it  within  a  man  or 
without  a  man  that  the  Spirit  strives  with  him  1  Where 
can  he  resist  the  Spirit  of  God  but  in  his  own  heart  ]  It 
appears  to  me  that  the  difference  between  an  unregenerate 
and  a  regenerate  man  is  mainly  this,  that  the  first  is  resist- 
ing the  Spirit  of  God  which  is  striving  with  him,  and  the 
second  is  yielding  himself  up  to  be  led  by  it.  It  is  in  him 
in  a  very  different  sense  from  what  it  was  before — it  has 
got  into  his  will.  I  become  a  spiritual  man  by  receiving 
the  Spirit  into  my  will,  but  I  could  not  do  that  unless  the 
Spirit  had  been  there  for  me  to  receive  it.  It  had  been  in 
me  before,  though  not  received  into  my  will,  the  place 
which  it  seeks,  the  throne  of  my  being,  and  my  sin  had 
consisted  in  shutting  my  will  against  its  urgent  knockings. 
Suppose  the  race  of  man  to  be  one  great  tree  (like  a  genea- 
logical tree)  with  the  roots,  Adam  and  Christ.  From  each 
root  a  sap  ascends  and  visits  every  branch  and  twig  of  the 
tree;  the  branches  have  the  power  of  choosing  which  sap 
they  will  admit  and  which  they  will  shut  out.  The  old 
sap  is  in  possession  to  begin  with,  but  the  heavenly  sap 
presents  itself  at  the  door,  and  asks  admittance,  and  has  a 
witness  within  each  branch  that  it  ought  to  be  admitted, 
and  by  its  presence  there  confers  a  power  on  the  branch  of 
accepting  its  aid  in  expelling  the  old  sap  and  giving  itself 

2  B 


386  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1841. 

up  to  the  new.  Now,  the  Spirit  of  God  is  also  the  Spirit 
of  Christ,  and  Christ  is  the  channel  through  which  all  good 
things  come  to  us.  So  that  Law  does  not  feel  as  if  he  were 
much  wrong  in  calling  the  Spirit  by  the  name  of  Christ, 
especially  since  it  is  it  that  is  in  us,  in  order  that  Christ 
may  be  born  and  formed  in  us  in  the  higher  sense, 
namely,  by  getting  possession  of  the  will.  I  am  not  anxious 
to  make  proselytes  to  phrases ;  but  to  the  real  presence  of 
the  Spirit  of  God  in  every  man,  striving  with  him  for  his 
good,  and  grieved  when  He  is  resisted,  I  do  wish  to  make 
proselytes,  believing  it  to  be  to  the  glory  of  God  and  to  con- 
tain a  loud  call  and  a  great  hope  for  man.  I  believe  that 
Law,  when  he  calls  on  men  to  look  inward,  means  merely 
to  warn  them  of  the  necessity  of  applying  to  the  Spirit, 
and  of  the  impossibility  of  knowing  anything  about  God 
but  by  the.  Spirit.  He  does  not  mean  to  refer  them  to  any 
human  faculty,  far  less  to  any  frames  or  feelings  of  their 
own. — Your  affectionate  cousin,  T.  Erskine. 


II.—  PUSEYISM. 

222.    TO  AN  UNKNOWN  CORRESPONDENT. 

Linlathen,  30</i  Jan.  1841. 

As  you  are  now  fairly  settled  at  the  fountainhead  of 
Puseyism,  and  brought  much  into  contact  with  persons  and 
circumstances  that  may  recommend  it  both  to  your  imagina- 
tion and  understanding,  I  have  thought  that  I  might  be 
acting  the  part  of  a  friend  towards  you,  by  writing  to  you 
some  thoughts  on  the  subject,  which  might  at  least  serve 
the  purpose  of  making  you  weigh  the  matter  well  before 
you  give  your  accpriescence  to  it. 

You  must  yourself  have  felt  that  the  first  problem  to  be 


iET.  52.  PUSEYISM.  387 

solved  in  the  formation  of  a  sound  system  in  politics,  in 
morals,  or  in  religion,  is  to  reconcile  the  full  and  vigorous 
development  of  the  individual  man  with  that  reverence 
for  the  authority  of  others  which  becomes  him  as  a  member 
of  society.  The  right  of  private  judgment,  the  refusal  to 
receive  simply  on  authority  any  principles  or  rules  which 
affect  our  higher  interest  as  moral,  spiritual,  immortal  beings, 
the  demand  for  personal  satisfaction,  the  consciousness  of  a 
personal  responsibility,  which  are  the  elements  of  individual 
development,  and  without  which  it  cannot  exist  to  any 
considerable  degree,  seem  often  to  be,  even  by  their  right 
use  as  well  as  by  their  abuse,  the  occasion  of  the  greatest 
confusions  and  disruptions  of  public  order  and  tranquillity. 
And  no  doubt  they  are  much  exposed  to  abuse,  that  is,  to 
be  exercised  without  the  control  of  principle,  the  honest 
purpose  of  doing  what  is  right, — and  being  thus  abused, 
they  tend  really  to  injure  the  character  of  the  individual, 
as  well  as  to  hurt  society.  The  thought  of  this  may  well 
make  us  hesitate  about  allowing  too  much  scope  to  the 
individual  independent  judgment,  as  tending  to  strengthen 
the  selfish  independency  of  the  will.  We  know  also  that 
submission  to  a  rightful  authority,  as  in  the  case  of  children 
for  example,  is  most  favourable  to  the  growth  of  the  char- 
acter, intellectual  as  well  as  moral,  up  to  a  certain  point  at 
least.  We  see  thus  that  there  are  two  things  good  for 
man,  but  that  it  is  difficult  to  have  them  both.  Must  we 
forego  one  of  them  %  and  if  so  which  of  them  are  we  to 
forego  % 

But  it  may  be  said,  we  need  not  really  forego  any  good 
thing,  for  has  it  not  been  admitted  that  submission  to  a 
rightful  authority  is,  at  least  in  the  case  of  children — and  if 
in  their  case,  why  not  in  all  cases  1 — more  nourishing  to  the 
whole  character  than  any  independent,  ungoverned  move- 
ments of  the  individual  will.     But  here  another  question 


3S8  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKWE.  1S41. 

comes  in,  What  is  a  rightful  authority  1  When  I  come  my- 
self to  feel  the  difference  between  right  and  wrong,  ought 
I  to  regard  any  authority  as  rightful  which  commands  me 
to  act  in  contradiction  to  what  I  feel  to  be  right  1  Does 
not  this  very  consciousness  of  knowing  what  is  right  lift 
me  out,  as  far  as  those  things  are  concerned  in  which  I 
discern  a  positive  right,  from  under  any  other  authority 
than  the  Fountain  of  right — than  God]  Does  not  this 
consciousness  impel  me,  and  strengthen  me,  in  the  face  of 
all  human  judgment,  to  appeal  to  a  greater  than  they  1  and 
ought  I  not  to  consider  this  voice  within  me  as  claiming  me 
to  be  under  his  own  particular  authority  1  more  especially 
if  I  come  from  some  obscure  consciousness  within  me  to 
the  belief  that,  although  I  have  only  on  these  few  remark- 
able occasions  heard  the  voice,  yet  it  is  in  truth  always 
speaking  in  me  and  assuming  a  direction  of  me  on  the 
most  minute  as  well  as  on  the  greatest  occasions  1  What 
right  have  I  then  to  give  myself  up  implicitly  to  another 
director  ]  If  God  is  really  speaking  to  me,  I  can  have  a 
right  to  submit  to  another  authority  only  when  it  accords 
or  perhaps  does  not  discord  with  His  authority  in  my 
conscience.  Besides,  it  is  surely  true  that  God  puts  me 
whilst  a  child  under  my  parents,  only  whilst  my  conscience 
is  growing,  with  the  purpose  of  teaching  me  the  habit  of 
looking  upward  for  direction  and  strength,  and  not  with 
the  purpose  that  I  should  never  look  higher.  Surely  all 
inferior  authorities  are  appointed  to  train  us  to  the  know- 
ledge of  the  Supreme  authority,  and  not  to  supplant  it. 
But  the  habit  of  taking  the  opinion  or  judgment  of  a  man  or 
of  a  Church  as  a  sufficient  ground  for  conduct  after  we  have 
passed  childhood  and  have  arrived  at  the  period  when  we 
ou^ht  ourselves  to  hold  communion  with  God,  must  tend 
very  much  to  keep  conscience  asleep,  or  in  a  very  low 
condition. 


ALT.   52. 


FUSE  Y1SM.  339 


My  conscience  witnesses  to  me,  as  a  child,  that  I  should 
obey  my  parents.  Well,  how  far  should  this  obedience 
go  %  Surely  not  the  length  of  making  me  do  what  I  see 
distinctly  to  be  wrong.  "  Children,  obey  your  parents,  in 
the  Lord," — that  is,  I  suppose,  as  far  as  you  see  their  com- 
mand to  be  in  accord  with  the  Lord's  will.  Authority  is 
good  and  useful  when  it  is  used  for  bringing  us  into  a 
condition  in  which  we  may  ourselves  see  what  we  ought  to 
do,  without  other  direction.  It  is  a  part  of  the  education 
of  conscience.  A  child's  education  consists  mainly  in 
choosing  between  the  authority  of  its  parent  and  its  own 
inclination,  but  the  education  of  men  consists  much  in 
choosing  between  the  authority  of  God  and  the  authority 
of  man.  It  will  not  stand  us  in  stead  to  say,  My  father  is 
God's  ordinance  to  me,  therefore  I  may  obey  him  in  any- 
thing without  fear  of  going  wrong. 

The  use  of  submission  to  authority  seems  to  me  chiefly 
to  lie  in  this,  that  by  it  I  am  delivered  from  self-will,  and 
so  put  into  a  condition  of  judging  rightly,  although  that 
judgment  may  be  in  opposition  to  the  authority  to  which 
I  submit  myself.  Jesus  said,  I  know  that  my  judgment  is 
true,  because  I  seek  not  mine  own  will,  but  the  will  of  Him 
that  sent  me.  When  I  cease  to  seek  mine  own  will  I  am 
in  a  condition  to  form  a  just  judgment,  and  the  habit  of 
obedience  helps  us  to  that  cessation.  The  parent  is  an 
ordinance,  the  pastor  is  an  ordinance,  the  church  is  an 
ordinance,  but  personal  spiritual  communion  with  God, 
holiness  and  righteousness,  are  not  ordinances,  but  the  things 
for  which  ordinances  are  appointed.  The  Sabbath  was 
made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  the  Sabbath.  It  is  not 
enough  that  I  see  the  ordinance  to  be  of  God's  appointment : 
I  must  see  also  that  that  which  comes  to  me  through  it  is 
of  His  wilL 

I  must  not  take  it  for  granted  that  because  the  ordinance 


390  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


is  of  God's  Divine  appointment  all  that  comes  to  me  through 
it  is  also  divine.  Here  then  I  must  exercise  private  judg- 
ment ;  I  must  judge  my  ordinance,  my  pastor,  my  parent, 
etc. ;  I  must  do  it  whether  I  will  or  not,  if  I  do  not  consent 
to  have  altogether  a  second-hand  religion.  I  think  Pusey- 
ism  is  wrong,  in  the  way  which  I  have  now  described,  in 
the  view  which  it  takes  of  authority  and  ordinances.  I 
think  that  its  root  is  the  same  with  that  of  Popery,  only  it 
has  not  gone  so  far.  Quakerism  is  its  supplement,  its  oppo- 
site pole — necessary  to  complete  it.  It  denies  the  light 
which  lighteth  every  man,  and  thus  it  is  forced  to  set  up 
authority  in  its  place.  But  when  submission  to  authority 
is  thus  set  up  in  the  place  of  conscience  it  becomes  itself, 
not  a  means  but  an  end — not  an  assistance  to  education, 
but  the  condition  aimed  at  in  all  education,  and  thus  right- 
eousness is  really  annihilated,  or  at  least  contracted  into 
mere  obedience.  And  how,  without  an  original  light,  can  I 
judge  of  the  Tightness  or  wrongness  of  an  authority  1  Am  I 
to  take  the  authority  that  comes  first  ]  How  do  the  pas- 
tors know  it  1  have  they  an  inward  light,  and  they  only  1 
The  author  of  the  review  of  Carlyle  in  the  Quarterly  evi- 
dently thinks  that  men  ought  to  have  been  content  to  have 
remained  in  the  lowest  state  of  degradation  rather  than  to 
have  taken  the  initiative  of  reformation  out  of  the  hands 
of  the  Church  into  their  own.  This  is  really  denying  the 
cup  to  the  laity, — the  wine,  the  blood,  the  life, — and  con- 
demning them  to  be  merely  a  passive  substance  to  be 
animated  by  the  clergy,  the  living  part. 

It  appears  to  me  that  Puseyism  as  well  as  Irvingism  is 
a  return  to  Judaism ;  an  outside  thing  instead  of  an  inside 
thing.  I  am  well  aware  that  we  cannot  have  a  religion  so 
altogether  spiritual  as  to  be  independent  of  outward  forms, 
but  I  think  that  Christianity  aims  at  the  highest  degree  of 
spirituality,  and  that  this  is  the  explanation  why  the  New 


JET.  52. 


DR.  GLOAG.  391 


Testament  writers  are  so  sparing  in  their  directions  as  to 
forms  of  any  kind.  They  wish  to  implant  principles  which 
may  lead  to  their  own  results.  They  put  down  the  centres 
of  circles,  but  they  draw  no  circumferences.  I  believe  that 
one  form  is  good  for  one  time,  and  that  another  is  good 
for  another.  When  I  read  Matthew  and  John,  and  compare 
them  together,  I  cannot  but  recognise  two  very  different 
intellectual  forms  at  least  of  the  same  religion.  I  am  per- 
suaded that  those  who  go  into  Puseyism  are  either  led  by 
the  poetry  of  it — and  there  is  much  poetry  in  it, — or  by 
that  desire  to  get  rid  of  doubt  and  responsibility,  and  of  the 
necessity  of  personal  judgment  and  of  a  personal  exercise 
of  conscience,  which  has  led  many  before  into  Catholicism. 
If  we  wish  to  be  perfect  men  in  Christ  Jesus  we  must 
consent  to  bear  our  own  responsibility — and  does  not  the 
apostle  say,  "Every  man  must  bear  his  own  burden"'? 
referring,  as  it  appears  to  me,  to  this  very  subject. 

T.  F, 


III.— THE  FORENSIC  THEORY  OF  JUSTIFICATION. 

223.    TO  THE  REV.  PATON  J.  GLOAG,  D.D. 

March  1858. 
Rev.  Sir, — I  have  looked  through  your  works  on  Justifi- 
cation by  Faith,  and  on  the  Assurance  of  Salvation,1  and 
I  venture  to  communicate  to  you  some  of  the  thoughts 
which  they  have  suggested  to  me,  persuaded  that  you  will 
receive  them  candidly  and  kindly,  not  rejecting  them 
unweighed  because  they  do  not  altogether  agree  with  what 
you  have  been  accustomed  to  consider  the  orthodox  standard. 
I  observe,  from  what  you  say  in  the  beginning  of  the  184th 

1  These  works,  written  by  Dr.  Gloag,  now  minister  of  Galashiels,  had  been 
brought  under  Mr.  Erskine's  notice  by  a  common  friend. 


392  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1858. 

page  of  the  larger  work,  that  you  have  felt  the  difficulty 
connected  with  the  common  theory,  although  you  have 
got  over  it.  You  have  felt  the  difficulty  of  believing  that 
there  could  he  anything  conventional  or  arbitrary  in  God's 
dealings  with  man,  in  the  spiritual  education  of  him. 
Every  thinking  man  must  have  felt  it ;  and  many,  I  am 
sure,  have  been  compelled  to  reject  the  eommon  theory, 
whether  they  have  arrived  at  any  other  wluch  satisfied 
them  or  not.  Let  me  propose  a  solution.  Does  not  the 
true  rightness  of  man  consist  in  an  absolute  submissive 
dependence  on  God  as  a  loving  Father,  who  is  continually, 
by  His  Spirit  within  and  His  providence  without,  seeking 
to  bring  us  into  an  entire  conformity  with  His  own  will  1 
Does  it  not  consist  in  such  a  dependence  as.  the  branch  has 
on  the  vine,  living  by  the  sap  thence  received  1  Does  not 
man's  wrongness  consist  in  his  following  his  own  indepen- 
dent will  in  acting  from  his  own  resources,  in  living  under 
the  power  of  self?  Faith,  confidence,  dependence,  is  the 
name  for  man's  turning  from  himself  to  God.  "  Trust  in  the 
Lord  with  all  thy  heart,  and  lean  not  to  thine  own  under- 
standing ;  in  all  thy  ways  acknowledge  Him,  and  He  will 
direct  thy  paths."  This  faith  is  man's  right  condition,  and 
it  is  the  righteousness  of  Christ,  as  the  sap  in  the  branch 
is  the  sap  from  the  vine.  When  I  entirely  trust  in  another, 
so  as  to  surrender  myself  to  his  guidance,  the  righteousness 
of  that  other  is  communicated  to  me.  This  is,  I  believe, 
the  SiKaioavvrj  which  is  by  faith,  the  righteousness  of 
faith.  There  is  a  SiKaioavvr}  which  is  on  all  men  whether 
they  believe  it  or  not,  the  manifestation  of  the  loving 
purpose  of  God  toward  them  in  Jesus  Christ,  but  which 
does  not  become  Sifcatoavvr),  righteousness,  until  it  is 
received  by  faith,  the  spiritual  apprehension. 

I  believe  that  the  Son  of  God,  the  eternal  Word,  is  the 
original  foundation  and  ground  of  man's  being ;  that  man 


jet.  69.  DR.  GLOAG.  393 

is  in  the  image  of  God  because  created  in  Him  who  is  the 
express  image  of  the  Father ;  that  man's  acting  as  if  he 
were  his  own  or  had  anything  of  his  own,  and  not  as 
existing  in  Christ,  is  his  fall  and  unrighteousness ;  but  that 
does  not  and  cannot  get  him  off  the  deep  original  ground 
of  his  being.  I  believe  that  as  Christ  is  the  ground  of 
man's  being,  and  is  actually  in  every  man  as  the  supplier 
of  spiritual  life,  so  He  is  also  the  Head  of  man,  of  the 
whole  race  of  man,  acting  for  the  race,  not  at  all  as  their 
substitute,  but  as  their  Head  and  root ;  doing  things,  not 
instead  of  them,  but  for  them,  as  the  root  does  things  for 
the  branches. 

I  have  no  belief  in  the  forensic  theory,  which  seems  to 
me  founded  on  a  mistaken  conception  of  God's  relation  to 
man.  It  supposes  that  God's  chief  relation  to  man  is  that 
of  a  judge,  and  that  the  relations  of  Father  and  teacher 
must  suit  themselves  to  it,  in  subordination  to  it ;  whereas 
I  am  convinced  that  it  is  just  the  contrary.  The  forensic 
system  supposes  that  God  made  men  that  He  may  after- 
wards judge  them  ;  I  believe  that  He  judges  them  that  He 
may  teach  them,  so  that  His  judgments  are  instructions. 
I  believe  that  God  created  man  that  He  might  instruct  him 
into  a  conformity  with  His  own  character,  and  so  make 
him  a  partner  of  His  own  life,  the  eternal  life  which  is  His 
will  or  character.  This  view  of  the  purpose  of  God  in 
man's  creation  makes  an  important  change  in  our  feelings 
with  regard  to  the  Law.  Whilst  I  regard  God  as  my 
Judge  the  law  is  an  object  of  fear,  and  the  higher  its  stan- 
dard the  greater  is  that  fear;  whereas  if  I  regard  God  as 
my  Fatherly  teacher,  seeking  to  make  me  a  partaker  in 
His  blessedness  by  making  me  partaker  in  His  holiness,  I 
am  delighted  with  the  contemplation  of  the  high  standard 
to  which  He  is  using  means  to  elevate  me,  and  instead  of 
shunning  this  searching  eye,  I  desire  to  expose  myself  to  it. 


394  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1858. 

knowing  that  it  is  the  eye  not  of  a  taskmaster  who  is  seeking 
occasion  against  me,  but  the  eye  of  a  loving,  spiritual  physi- 
cian who  is  searching  into  my  disease  in  order  to  cure  it. 
The  1 39th  Psalm  is  a  beautiful  exemplification  of  the  effect 
of  this  apprehension  of  God  and  His  purpose  towards 
us.  David,  conscious  of  much  sin  and  pollution,  welcomes 
the  gaze  of  God,  assured  that  His  object  is  to  lead  him  in 
th  way  everlasting.  When  I  am  sure  that  God's  one  and 
sole  purpose  towards  me  is  to  deliver  me  from  everything 
that  can  separate  me  from  Himself  and  His  eternal  blessed- 
ness, I  can  lay  myself  down  with  absolute  security  in  His 
hand,  receiving  His  discipline  in  whatever  form  it  comes, 
saying,  "  Search  me,  0  Lord,  and  know  my  heart ;  try  me 
and  know  my  ways,  and  lead  me  in  the  way  everlasting." 

I  believe  that  this  state  of  spiritual  being  is  the  true 
justification  by  faith  and  the  true  assurance  of  salvation, 
and  that  these  can  never  be  produced  by  any  feeling  that 
we  have  complied  with  any  condition,  either  faith  or 
obedience  (which,  in  fact,  come  to  the  same  thing),  but 
that  they  can  only  be  produced  by  seeing  in  the  character 
of  God  that  thorough  fatherliness  on  which  we  can  place 
a  perfect  reliance,  and  by  discovering  that  His  purpose  for 
us  is  just  what  we  most  desire  for  ourselves.  I  find  it 
most  sweet  when  I  can  thus  rest  on  the  eternal  love  of  my 
Father's  heart,  sweeter  far  than  to  rest  on  any  thought 
(most  dubious  at  best)  that  I  have  fulfilled  a  prescribed 
condition  of  either  faith  or  obedience,  and  sweeter  also 
than  to  rest  on  the  idea  of  a  legal  transaction  by  which 
my  debt  to  God  has  been  paid.  I  wish  to  owe  Him  all,  to 
owe  Him  a  debt  of  love  which  never  can  be  paid.  If  I 
believed  in  the  forensic  theory  I  should  feel  that  in  coming 
to  it  from  the  139th  Psalm  I  had  come  from  a  higher, 
holier  ground  to  a  lower  and  less  holy,  which  I  am  sure  is 
impossible  in  the  progress  of  divine  revelation. 


JET.  69.  DR.  GLOAG.  39.3 

Jesus  is  the  Eevealer  of  the  Father,  and  His  doings  have 
their  chief  value  in  discovering  to  us  the  everlasting  Foun- 
tain out  of  which  they  flowed.  It  seems  to  me  that  at 
every  step  of  His  earthly  course  we  should  hear  Him  saying, 
"  He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father;"  and  what 
were  all  these  steps  but  a  varied  manifestation  of  the 
desire  to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost  1  What  were  they  but 
varied  expressions  of  sympathy  for  man  pressed  down  by 
sin  and  sorrow  1  So  the  miraculous  cures  are  less  con- 
sidered by  the  evangelists  as  acts  of  power  than  as  acts  of 
compassion,  tokens  of  sympathy  (Matt.  viii.  17).  And 
thus  He  revealed  the  Father.  And  in  that  touching 
invitation  which  concludes  the  11th  chapter  of  the  same 
book  the  true  meaning  of  the  whole  passage  is  missed 
unless  we  see  its  connection  with  the  last  clause  of  the 
27th  verse,  "Neither  knoweth  any  man  the  Father  save 
the  Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  will  reveal  him  ;" 
and  now  come  unto  me,  for  I  am  the  Son  ready  to  reveal 
the  Father,  and  so  to  give  you  rest. 

But  I  must  stop,  for  I  shall  be  writing  you  a  book  and 
not  a  letter  if  I  go  on.  One  thing,  however,  I  should  be 
sorry  to  omit,  which  is,  that  the  forensic  theory  has  a  direct 
tendency  to  make  men  think  that  salvation  consists  in  the 
removal  of  a  penalty  instead  of  a  deliverance  from  sin.  I 
am  persuaded  that  it  has  had  that  effect  on  the  minds  of 
our  population  very  universally. 

And  now,  dear  sir,  hoping  and  trusting  that  you  will 
interpret  kindly  both  what  I  have  written  and  my  purpose 
in  writing,  I  subscribe  myself  your  obedient  servant, 

T.  Erskine. 

P.S. — When  I  use  the  phrase  "  forensic  theory,"  I  mean 
that  theory  of  the  work  of  Christ  which  contains  the  idea 
that  God   is  compelled   by   His   own   essential  justice   to 


396  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1858 

punish  sin,  and  to  punish  it  as  an  infinite  offence  because 
it  is  committed  against  His  own  infinite  excellence,  and 
that  in  order  to  evade  this  necessity,  which  would  involve 
the  perdition  of  the  whole  race,  He  has  had  recourse  to  sub- 
stitutional imputation.  It  seems  to  me  that  there  is  a  mis- 
take at  the  very  foundation  of  all  this.  I  do  not  believe 
that  justice  ever  is,  or  can  be,  satisfied  with  punishment. 
I  believe  that  the  justice  of  God  is  the  righteousness  of 
God,  and  that  His  righteousness  requires  righteousness  in 
man,  and  can  be  satisfied  with  nothing  else,  and  that 
punishment  is  God's  protest  that  He  is  not  satisfied.  But 
it  is  evident  that  if  this  be  so  the  judicial  office  is  incom- 
plete in  itself,  and  must  be  subordinate  to  the  teaching 
office,  so  that  the  condemnation  of  wrong  may  minister  to 
the  inculcation  and  acquisition  of  right. 

I  can  see  many  causes  for  the  marked  unfruitfulness  of 
religious  instruction  amongst  us,  but  I  am  persuaded  that 
the  chief  are  that  the  judicial  character  of  God  is  made  to 
swallow  up  and  conceal  His  paternal  character;  that  thus 
Christ  is  viewed  as  a  refuge  from  the  Father  instead  of  the 
way  to  Him,  and  that  the  Law  is  represented  as  a  standard 
by  which  we  are  to  be  tried  and  condemned,  instead  of  a 
standard  to  which  .it  is  the  purpose  of  God  to  raise  and 
draw  us  up.  I  believe  that  the  true  assurance  of  salvation 
is  unattainable  where  such  thoughts  exist  and  prevail. 
Finally,  I  believe  that  we  are  all  called  and  elected  to 
eternal  life,  but  that  Ave  may  frustrate  the  counsel  of  God, 
and  that  therefore  we  are  exhorted  to  make  our  calling 
and  election  sure,  not  to  make  ourselves  sure  that  we 
are  called  and  elected,  but  to  make  our  undoubted 
calling  and  election  fiefiaiav,  firm,  solid,  as  ^Eschines  said 
of  the  democracy.  The  democracy  existed,  but  it  might 
be  made  sure,  or  it  might  be  sapped  by  the  factious 
oligarchy. 


BISHOP  COLENSO.  397 


Farewell,  dear  sir ;  I  trust  you  will  not  think  me  either 
presumptuous  or  officious  in  thus  writing  to  you. 

T.  Erskine. 


IV.— THE  BIBLE. 


Among  Mr.  Erskine's  papers  was  the  copy  of  this  letter 
addressed  by  him  to  Bishop  Colenso,  without  a  date  : — 

224.    TO  BISHOP  COLENSO. 

My  dear  Lord, — I  could  not  satisfy  my  own  conscience 
if  I  did  not  make  some  acknowledgment  of  your  kindness 
in  sending  me  your  remarks  on  the  Bishop  of  Cape  Town's 
proceedings  in  relation  to  you. 

Of  course  I  agree  entirely  with  you  in  your  view  of  the 
legality  of  the  Metropolitan's  claims,  and  not  only  as  to 
what  the  law  actually  is,  but  what  in  reason  and  righteous- 
ness it  ought  to  be. 

But  further,  I  agree  with  you  on  a  much  more  important 
matter,  namely,  the  meaning  and  purpose  of  authority  in 
all  true  teaching.  I  am  sure  that  so  long  as  we  believe  any- 
thing that  is  of  the  nature  of  a  principle  merely  on  outward 
authority,  be  it  the  authority  either  of  God  or  man,  with- 
out discerning  for  ourselves  its  own  truth,  we  are  not  truly 
believing  it.  We  may  be  believing  the  veracity  and  the 
wisdom  of  our  informer,  but  we  are  not  believing  in  the 
truth  of  the  thing  he  made  known  to  us,  until  we  discern 
that  truth.  If  I  am  to  be  saved  or  spiritually  healed  by 
a  truth,  I  must  have  my  spirit  brought  into  contact  with 
the  quality  and  character  and  reality  of  that  truth,  so  as  to 
be  affected  by  it  in  accordance  with  its  proper  nature, — and 
any  faith  which  is  not  fitted  to  do  this  is  not  that  which 
I  need. 


SOS  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 

The  object  of  all  true  teaching  is  to  make  us  independent 
of  authority ;  and  to  reduce  all  belief  into  submissive 
obedience  is  as  great  a  blunder  in  religion  as  it  is  in  common 
sense.  I  cannot  become  loving  or  pure  or  humble  by  mere 
obedience.  I  must  perceive  the  excellency  of  love  and 
purity  and  humility.  I  believe  that  the  most  strenuous 
advocate  for  authority  would  admit,  that  if  the  Bible  and 
the  Koran  were  put  at  the  same  time  into  any  one's  hands, 
and  he  were  called  on  to  make  choice  between  the  two 
religions,  he  ought  to  be  able  to  see  that  the  Bible  contained 
more  and  higher  truth  than  the  other.  And  if  it  is  granted 
that  man  ought  to  judge  rightly  in  such  a  case,  it  must  also 
be  granted  that  he  has  the  capacity  of  discerning  truth  in 
spiritual  things,  which  capacity  it  is  the  purpose  of  all 
religious  teaching  to  cultivate. 

The  value  of  the  Bible,  according  to  my  reason  and 
conscience,  consists  in  what  it  contains, — in  the  truth  which 
I  find  in  it, — not  in  the  manner  in  which  it  was  composed. 
I  cannot  fully  estimate  what  it  has  been  to  myself  or  to 
my  race.  From  the  history  of  human  thought  I  see  that 
there  has  been  hardly  any  true  apprehension  of  the  nature 
and  character  of  God,  or  of  our  relation  to  Him,  out  of  the 
pale  of  its  influence.  That  this  light  should  have  been 
enjoyed  by  that  small  tribe,  and  that  it  should  have  been 
continued  amongst  them  through  a  succession  of  teachers, 
whilst  even  Greece  and  Rome  were  comparatively  dark 
until  enlightened  through  them,  seems  to  suggest  that  there 
must  Lave  been  the  interposition  of  a  supernatural  agency. 
But  I  believe  this  on  account  of  the  truth  which  I  find.  I 
do  not  believe  in  the  truth  on  account  of  the  supernatural 
agency  ;  and  yet  after  having  been  constrained  to  recognise 
that  supernatural  agency,  I  feel  that  I  am  not  justified  in 
reading  the  Bible  as  if  I  had  made  no  such  discovery.  It 
will  still  remain  true  that  I  cannot  believe  till  I  discern 


BISHOP  COLENSO.  399 

truth,  but  I  shall  read  with  a  reverent  thought  that  though 
I  do  not  yet  see  it,  there  is  truth  there,  if  I  could 
see  it. 

From  your  quotation  in  page  14,  I  gather  that  you  look 
on  the  Bible  very  much  as  I  do ;  and  as  you  doubtless 
acknowledge  that  all  education  must  begin  with  some 
form  of  authority,  you  will  also  feel  the  importance  of  avoid- 
ing everything  which  is  likely  to  shake  the  confidence  of 
those  multitudes  who,  you  know,  will  never  advance  beyond 
authority  all  their  lives.  Whether  you  have  actually  and 
in  your  writings  been  sufficiently  careful  here,  is  the  point 
on  which  many  whose  views  on  the  nature  and  use  of 
authority  in  all  teaching,  and  especially  in  religious  teaching, 
are  the  same  as  your  own,  yet  differ  from  you.  You  seem 
to  me  to  think  that  those  who  agree  with  you  on  this  sub- 
ject of  authority,  and  also  acknowledge  that  there  must  be 
very  considerable  truth  in  the  critical  conclusions  as  to  the 
history  and  composition  of  the  Old  Testament  books  at 
which  you  have  arrived,  ought  also  consistently  to  approve 
of  your  publications  on  these  books.  But  you  may  be  mis- 
taken. If  all  the  religious  teachers  of  this  country,  or  even 
a  large  proportion  of  them,  did  really  in  their  teaching 
address  the  conscience  and  reason  of  their  people,  so  that 
the  people  were  accustomed  to  this  kind  of  thought,  I  do 
not  believe  that  your  books  could  have  excited  any  alarm  ; 
but  you  know  well  that  this  is  not  the  case,  and  that  con- 
ventional notions  on  religion  are  the  common  notions  of 
the  country,  and  that,  generally  speaking,  Christianity  itself 
is  identified  with,  and  is  supposed  to  stand  on  nothing  else 
than,  the  belief  of  the  verbal  inspiration  of  the  Bible.  This 
wrong  state  of  things  ought  certainly  to  be  corrected  as 
speedily  as  possible.  But  by  what  means  1  By  denouncing 
the  error,  or  by  guiding  the  people  into  the  truth  ]  It  is  a 
difficult  question,  because  it  must  be  a  question  of  degree. 


400  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1858. 

I  feel  that  I  shrink  from  what  you  have  done,  and  yet  I 
can  conceive  your  acting  perfectly  conscientiously.  When 
I  think  of  your  criticisms  I  often  seem  to  hear  the  voice  of 
the  Great  Teacher  saying,  "  I  have  many  things  to  say  unto 
you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now,"  as  a  call  to  thoughtful 
tenderness  for  our  brethren.  I  sometimes  also  consider 
whether  you  are  prepared  yourself  for  the  results  of  such 
criticisms  on  the  New  Testament. — I  remain,  my  dear  Lord, 
with  best  wishes,  yours  faithfully,  T.  Erskine. 

I  do  not  feel  myself  justified  in  saying  anything  by 
merely  knowing  that  it  is  true ;  I  feel  bound  to  look  to 
its  probable  effects  on  those  who  hear  it. 

225.    TO  PROFESSOR  LORIMER. 

Hotel,  Granton,  14</i  July  1858. 
Dear  Sir, — It  was  with  no  small  interest  that  I  read 
over  those  sheets.1  It  seems  to  me  most  important  to 
understand  the  place  which  the  Scriptures  really  occupy, 
that  so  we  may  make  the  use  of  them  which  they  were 
intended  to  serve,  and  be  delivered  from  any  superstitious 
feelings  about  them.  This  is  specially  needed  here  in 
Scotland,  where  a  belief  in  the  Bible  is  often  substituted 
for  faith  in  God,  and  a  man  is  considered  religious,  not 
because  he  walks  with  God  in  his  spirit,  but  because  he 
acknowledges  and  maintains  the  verbal  inspiration  of  the 
sacred  canon.  I  have  seen  people  brought  up  in  this  way 
who  would  have  felt  their  whole  faith  in  spiritual  things 
annihilated  by  the  discovery  of  any  contradiction  or  inaccur- 
acy in  the  Gospel  history.  A  faith  of  this  kind,  which 
rests  on  ignorance  and  which  is  dispelled  by  knowledge,  is 
certainly  not  the  kind  of  faith  which  we  should  desire 
either    for    ourselves    or   others.       The    most    lamentable 

1  Some  sheets  of  a  volume  011  the  "Inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,"  by 
Dr.  John  Muir,  who  endowed  the  Sanscrit  Chair  in  the  University  of 
Edinburgh — transmitted  to  Mr.  Erskine,  to  obtain  his  opinion  of  it. 


jet.  69.  PROFESSOR  LO RIMER.  401 

infidelity  cannot  fail  to  be  the  result  of  it.  I  agree  also 
with  the  author  of  these  sheets,  that  it  is  desirable  that 
laymen  should  take  up  the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  as  they 
may  be  expected  to  be  less  fettered  by  prejudice  than  those 
who  have  been  brought  up  within  the  limits  of  articles  and 
confessions  of  faith. 

I  feel  all  this,  but  there  is  another  principle  which  is 
perhaps  liable  to  be  forgotten  amidst  such  thoughts,  and  it 
is  this,  that  no  man  can  successfully  study  spiritual  truth 
except  in  a  spirit  of  reverence.  If  a  man  approaches  the 
New  Testament  as  he  might  approach  a  new  book  on 
geology  or  botany  he  will  certainly  fail  to  understand  it. 
Solomon  has  well  said,  "  The  scorner  seeketh  wisdom,  and 
findeth  it  not."  His  mind  in  a  self-conceited  or  even  a 
careless  state  (I  mean  morally  careless)  cannot  comprehend 
wisdom.  All  spiritual  truth  is  addressed  to  the  conscience 
in  man,  and  is  only  understood  by  the  conscience ;  and  if 
the  conscience  is  not  in  action  the  truth  is  to  him  like  light 
grasped  by  the  hand  instead  of  received  by  the  eye.  A 
grammarian  or  logician,  in  the  exercise  of  his  function,  is 
apt  to  overlook  this,  and  to  forget  that  there  may  be  mean- 
ings in  the  words  or  reasonings  which  he  is  handling  that 
require  the  co-operation  of  another  faculty. 

I  believe  that  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  of  the  religious 
people  of  Scotland  believe  in  the  verbal  inspiration  of  the 
Bible,  and  would  have  their  faith  shaken  to  pieces  by  the 
facts  which  your  friend  adduces  in  those  sheets.  I  should 
like  to  see  them  disabused,  but  I  should  like  this  to  be 
done  in  a  way  that  Avould  transfer  their  faith  from  the 
letter  to  the  spirit,  and  not  destroy  their  faith  altogether. 

I  believe  that  all  spiritual  truth  is  of  inspiration,  and 
that  it  is  apprehended  (as  I  said  before)  by  that  in  man 
which  is  of  the  nature  of  inspiration.  Unless  there  were 
"  a  true  light  lightening  every  man  that  cometh  into  the 

2  c 


402  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  185S. 

world,"  God  would  never  speak  or  have  spoken  to  man,  for 
He  would  not  have  been  understood.  I  cannot  draw  a 
distinct  line  between  Inspiration  in  the  Bible  and  Inspira- 
tion out  of  the  Bible,  but  I  am  sure  that  all  that  God 
speaks  to  us  through  others  or  from  without  is  intended  to 
make  us  better  apprehend  what  He  is  speaking  to  each  of 
us  in  the  secret  of  our  own  being. 

At  the  same  time  I  ought  to  say  that  I  find  thoughts  and 
words  both  in  the  Old  Testament  and  in  the  New,  which 
reach  my  inmost  soul  with  a  conviction  and  a  power  that  I 
find  in  no  other  thoughts  or  words. 

I  think  that  the  great  fault  of  our  common  preaching 
consists  in  the  almost  entire  want  of  reference  to  that 
inward  light  in  man.  "  Christ  in  you  the  hope  of  glory" 
is  the  gospel  which  Paul  preached  to  the  Colossians  (ch.  i. 
27),  and  the  outward  Christ  could  not  have  been  our 
Saviour  unless  He  had  been  also  within. 

I  have  been  long  of  sending  this,  but  I  have  thought  it 
right  to  send  it  that  I  may  mark  where  I  conceive  your 
friend  to  be  quite  safe,  and  where  I  think  he  ought  to  be 
on  his  guard.  This  is  all  very  desultory. — I  remain,  dear 
sir,  yours  truly,  T.  Erskine. 

Mr.  Erskine's  letter  having  been  sent  to  Dr.  Muir,  he 
wrote  expressing  a  strong  desire  that  Mr.  Erskine  would 
give  to  the  world  his  views  on  the  subjects  handled  in  his 
pamphlet.     To  this  Mr.  Erskine  replied  : — 

226.    TO  PROFESSOR  LO RIMER. 

LlNLATHEN,   DUNDEE,    5th  Atlff.    1858. 

Dear  Sir, — I  return  your  friend's  letter,  wishing  much 
I  could  do  what  he  suggests  in  it.  I  believe  that  a  true 
explanation  of  what  Christianity  means  is  the  only  evidence 
on  which  it  can  be  received.  No  miracles  of  whatever  kind 
could  make  a  man  who  felt  in  his  conscience  that  he  Avas 


MT.  69.  PROFESSOR  LO RIMER.  403 


called  to  be  good,  loving,  righteous,  believe  that  God  was 
not  good,  nor  loving,  nor  righteous ;   his   difficulty  is  to 
reconcile  this  character  of  God  with  the  facts  around  him 
— I  may  add,  with  facts  within  him.     The  idea  of  judgment 
comes  in  and  bewilders  him.     He  sees  sin  and  misery  around 
him ;  he  is  conscious  of  sin  and  misery  within  himself,  and 
God  becomes  to  his  conception  a  Judge  and  not  a  Father. 
With  such  a  conception  it  is  impossible  that  he  can  make 
any  progress  in  moral  or  spiritual  life.     If  I  suppose  that 
God  is  simply  pronouncing  judgment  on  me  through  the 
voice  of  conscience,  and  not  educating  me,  I  can  have  no 
confidence  in  Him,  and  without  confidence  in  Him  I  am 
powerless  for  any  good.     I  must  have  confidence  in  Him, 
but  it  must  be,  not  a  confidence  in  His  laxity  or  indulgence, 
but,  a  confidence  in  His  purpose  to  make  me  and  all  men 
like  Himself.     This  is  the  confidence  that  I  must  have 
in  God  if  I  am  not  to  fear  Him,  or  hate  Him,  or  despise 
Him.     With  this  confidence  I    can  trust  myself  on  the 
immeasurable  ocean  of  being  ;  without  it  I  must  either  live 
without  thought,  or  a  prey  to  continual  fear,  or  a  devil 
occupied  with  my  own  appetites  and  passions.     Wherever 
I  find    such   a   character  of  God  I   acknowledge   a  true 
religion.     It  meets  my  conscience,  it  meets  my  reason,  it 
is  the  crowning  fulfilment  of  that  order  which  is  presented 
to  me  in  the  relations  of  life.     According  to  this  light,  the 
laws  of  the  spiritual  world  are  unchangeable  ;  an  unloving, 
unrighteous,  impure,  selfish  being  must  be  miserable.     God's 
mercy  never  dreams  of  relaxing  this  law,  but  His  constant 
and  eternal  and  finally  triumphant  action  is  to  draw  man 
out  of  that  evil  condition  into  His  own  goodness.     If  I  can 
gather  this  character  of  God  out  of  the  Bible,  I  feel  that  I 
owe  an  immense  debt  to  it,  or  rather  to  Him  avIio  by  His 
providence  has  thus  supplied  the  need  of  my  soul.      Of  one 
revelation  I  am  perfectly  sure,  and  that  is  the  revelation  of 
God's  light  in  my  conscience.     And  yet,  as  I  have  just  said, 


404  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1858. 

I  find  that  I  am  often  puzzled  by  it,  and  that  I  draw  wrong 
inferences  from  it.  I  feel  myself  delivered  from  my 
difficulties  and  helped  to  give  the  true  interpretation  to  the 
indications  of  the  light  within  me  by  this  view  of  the 
character  and  purpose  of  God  which  the  Bible,  and  espe- 
cially the  New  Testament,  opens  up  to  me.  And  so  I 
acknowledge  it  as  a  revelation  also.  The  only  revelation 
from  without  which  I  can  acknowledge  is  some  light  which 
will  give  its  full  and  satisfactory  interpretation  to  that 
revelation  within,  which  I  already  have.  I  believe  also 
that  a  man  may  be  almost  insensible  to  the  light  within 
him,  and  may  yet  find  that  light  stirring  itself  under  the 
action  of  a  true  light  from  without  which  awakens  him  to 
a  consciousness  of  its  being  there. 

This  character  of  God  as  a  teaching  Father  who  eternally 
desires  and  seeks  the  holiness  of  His  reasonable  creatures 
seems  to  me  the  srreat  revelation  of  the  Bible,  and  the  true 
meaning  of  Christianity.  I  am  prepared  to  hear  any  criti- 
cisms on  the  book ;  they  do  not  trouble  me  in  the  least. 
T  have  found  a  medicine  which  heals  me  ;  I  have  found  an 
omnipotent  Friend,  whom  I  may,  by  following  selfish  desires, 
shut  out  from  my  spiritual  sight,  but  from  whom  I  can 
never  separate  myself — a  friend  who  is  the  eternal  enemy, 
and  will  be  the  eternal  conqueror,  of  all  evil,  and  who  will 
neither  spare  Himself  nor  us  any  suffering  which  may  be 
necessary  to  this  result.  This  is  the  pearl  of  great  price 
which  when  a  man  has  found  he  needs  not  that  any  other 
should  tell  him  its  value,  he  knows  it  and  feels  it ;  he 
does  not  need  any  evidence  that  this  revelation  of  the 
character  of  God  is  a  true  revelation,  he  knows  it  must 
be  true,  or  his  own  existence,  his  own  consciousness,  is 
a  lie. 

If  any  textual  emendations  or  any  improved  translation 
could  bring  this  truth  into  clearer  light,  I  should  welcome 
them  with  my  whole  heart.     Even  without  this  unspeakable 


jet.  69.  BISHOP  EWING.  405 

advantage  I  welcome  them ;  but  I  have  often  been  disap- 
pointed by  finding  that  men  who  were  zealous  for  the 
critical  processes  were  comparatively  cold  to  this,  without 
which  these  processes  are  mere  matters  of  philology.  Now 
if  I  were  to  attempt  a  crusade  it  would  be  for  this  truth, 
and  not  for  the  philology,  because  I  should  like  to  concen- 
trate the  thoughts  and  hearts  of  men  upon  it. 

Now,  my  dear  sir,  I  have  to  repeat  of  this  what  I  said 
of  another  of  my  letters,  that  it  is  all  very  desultory,  but  I 
think  there  is  a  truth  in  it  which  will  commend  itself  to 
some  consciences. — Yours  truly,  T.  Erskine. 

227.    TO  BISHOP  EWING.1 

41  Charlotte  Square,  February  8,  1S61. 

No  man  can  long  more  for  an  agreement  between  our 
Christianity  and  our  conscience  and  spiritual  reason  than 
I  do,  but  I  do  not  think  this  is  to  be  effected  by  such 
works  as  the  Essays  and  Reviews, 

It  is  not  by  such  criticisms  that  man  can  be  helped  to 
read  and  understand  the  Bible.  This  is  the  eighth  day  of 
the  month,  and  I  have  been  reading  the  Psalms  and  lessons 
for  the  day,  and  I  find  in  all  the  portions  of  Scripture,  so 
widely  separated  from  each  other  in  point  of  time,  and  in 
the  circumstances  of  the  writers,  the  breathing  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  so  revealing  to  man,  as  no  other  voice  ever  did,  his 
true  condition  before  God,  and  drawing  him  up  out  of  that 
horrible  pit,  with  an  apprehension  of  his  Heavenly  Father's 
unchangeable  purpose  of  holy  love  towards  him,  and  help- 

1  This  letter  was  written  immediately  before  a  visit  paid  by  the  Bishop 
to  Mr.  Erskine,  of  which  he  writes  : — "  I  have  just  come  from  being  ten 
days  with  Mr.  Erskine  in  Edinburgh.  It  is  always  a  great  gain  to  be 
with  him.  I  learn  more  from  his  conversations  than  from  all  the  books  I 
read.  His  looks  and  life  of  love  are  better  than  a  thousand  homilies." — 
Memoir  of  Bishop  Eioiny,  p.  311. 

For  other  and  most  valuable  letters  to  Bishop  Ewing  besides  those 
quoted  in  this  volume,  see  Present  Day  Papers,  Third  Series. 


406  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1861. 

ing  him  to  rise  into  fellowship  with  the  heart,  where  that 
purpose  ever  lives,  as  an  everlasting  ground  of  hope  and 
consolation,  that  after  reading  these  words  I  have  felt  that 
when  some  gentlemen  of  cultivated  faculties  combined 
their  efforts  to  enlighten  their  countrymen  in  the  nature 
and  structure  of  that  book  (so  that  it  might  be  studied 
with  intelligence  and  profit),  a  very  different  result  was 
to  have  been  expected  from  that  which  they  have  actually 
accomplished. 

Every  one  who  has  read  the  Bible  with  real  earnestness, 
must  have  felt  that  its  chief  object  was  to  help  man  to 
know  God,  and  to  know  themselves  in  His  light,  and  so  be 
led  to  receive  His  Spirit,  and  to  become  temples  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  Surely  then,  if  we  find  this  chief  object 
ignored  and  unnoticed  in  dissertations  written  to  elucidate 
the  character  of  the  book,  we  must  at  least  admit  that  by 
this  omission  a  very  grave  mistake  has  been  committed. 
I  am  reading  them  over,  so  that  I  may  not  form  my  own 
judgment  on  quotations  picked  out  by  those  -who  have 
assailed  them  in  the  periodical  press. 

I  have  finished  the  first,  and  find  nothing  to  condemn 
in  it ;  but  it,  I  suppose,  is  the  most  innocent  of  the  seven, 
with  perhaps  the  exception  of  the  last,  whose  author  is,  I 
know,  a  thorough  believer  in  subjective  Christianity  at 
least,  and  is  an  earnest  man.  In  fact  it  is  more  what  they 
have  left  unsaid  than  what  they  have  said  that  I  grieve 
for;  although  I  feel  that  a  miraculous  previous  history, 
such  as  that  of  the  Jews,  according  to  the  Old  Testament 
record,  is  required  as  the  preparation  for  the  appearance  of 
Jesus  Christ.  It  is  required  also  as  the  explanation  of  the 
difference  between  the  religious  knowledge  of  the  Jews  and 
that  of  all  other  nations.  Does  not  a  miraculous  dispensa- 
tion seem  the  reasonable  and  necessary  concomitant  of 
that  wonderful  light  shining-  in  the  midst  of  gross  dark- 


jet.  72.  BISHOP  EWING.  107 

ness  ]  God  thus  taught  the  people,  that  they  were  not  to 
be  the  slaves  of  matter,  but  to  be  the  free  children  of  Him 
who  governs  all  things.  The  miracles  of  the  Bible  are  not 
marvels,  but  illustrations  of  the  character  of  God,  and 
prophecy  is  the  continual  witnessing  that  in  God  alone  is 
the  redemption  of  man,  and  that  the  redemption  is  to  be 
accomplished  by  the  way  of  sorrow  and  suffering  and 
death. — Very  truly  yours,  T.  Erskine. 

228.    TO  MISS  GOURLAY. 

127  George  Street,  14th  Aug.  1869. 
My  dear  Miss  Gourlay, — Miss  Wedgwood  is  very 
good  and  diligent.  She  reads  Ewald  to  me,  the  history 
of  Israel  divested  of  miracle,  and  as  a  nation  choosing  God, 
not  chosen  by  God.  Such  a  choice  continuing  during 
such  a  length  of  time,  in  the  midst  of  surrounding  idolatry, 
seems  to  me  more  incredible  than  any  miracle.  But  it  is 
a  very  ingenious  and  very  gravely  written  book.1 


V.—  SELF-SACRIFICE— THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHRIST. 

229.    TO  BISHOP  EWING. 

41  Charlotte  Square,  January  9,  1861. 
My  dear  Bishop, — Don't  you  yourself  feel  that  the 
sacrifice  of  Christ  was  truly  the  sacrifice  of  self  at  the  very 
root  of  the  humanity  1  It  is  written  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  that  "  He  put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  Him- 
self." 

/    Sin  consists  in  self-seeking ;  and  sin  can  therefore  be 
put  away  by  no  other  means  than  the  sacrifice  of  self — a 

1  See  also  "The  Bible  in  relation  to  Faith,"  being  the  fourth  chapter 
in  The  Spiritual  Order. 


408  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1861. 

sacrifice,  however,  which  must  be  reproduced  in  every  soul 
of  man  before  he  is  individually  delivered  from  sin.  h 
/  Christ's  sacrifice  cannot  be  unlike  anything  else  in  the 
world — it  is  the  veryjype  of~vvhat  must  be  done  by  the 
spirit  of  Christ  in  every  humanbeing. — Yours  affection- 
ately, T.  EltSKINE. 

230.  TO  BISHOP  EWING. 
41  Charlotte  Square,  January  15,  1861. 
My  dear  Bishop, — What  is  the  meaning  of  the  words 
of  our  Lord,  "  Not  my  will,  but  thine  be  done  '"?  and  those 
others,  "  I  came  not  to  do  mine  own  will,  but  the  will  of 
my  Father"1?  Jesus  Christ  was  truly  a  man,  and  truly 
tempted,  although  He  always  resisted  temptation,  and, 
therefore,  had  that  in  Him  which  could  be  tempted.  He 
came  into  humanity,  and  went  through  the  education  of 
humanity,  laying  down  self  at  each  step.  He  would  not 
have  been  a  real  man,  if  He  had  not  had  that  self  in  Him 
which  would  seek  its  own.  And  He  was  our  Saviour  by 
continually  sacrificing  that  self,  and  by  presenting  Himself 
continually  to  His  Father  in  every  thought  and  word  and 
deed — a  perfectly  loving  and  obedient  Son.  His  sacrifice 
was  the  work  of  His  whole  life,  and  this  sacrifice  is  the 
basis  and  the  soul  of  all  true  worship  of  God  in  man.  .  .  . 

231.    TO  THE  SAME. 

41  Charlotte  Square,  February  1861. 
Vescovo  Carissimo, — I  have,  of  course,  read  Mr. 
Maurice's  book  on  Sacrifice,  and  I  felt  there,  as  in  all  his 
writings  and  speakings  on  the  subject,  the  presence  of  that 
element  of  which  he  feels  the  absence  both  in  Mr.  Camp- 
bell and  in  me.  It  is  not,  however,  absent  from  my  mind, 
only  I  feel  a  great  difficulty  in  forming  anything  like  a 


jet.  75.  BISHOP  EWING.  40!) 

clear  idea  of  it.  It  is  the  redemption  of  humanity  by  its 
purgation  in  its  root — the  God-man,  through  His  death 
and  resurrection.  I  have  been  always  accustomed  chiefly 
to  contemplate  this  in  its  reproduction,  in  the  spirits  of 
men,  by  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  when  it  becomes 
part  of  our  own  personal  conscious  history.  I  have  always 
felt  Mr.  Maurice's  language  on  this  subject  less  clear  than 
I  could  wish.  I  find  this  both  in  his  book  on  Sacrifice, 
and  in  the  remarks  which  he  makes  on  Campbell's  book 
in  the  introduction  to  his  Epistle  of  St.  John.  I  believe/ 
that  Christ's  work  on  earth  could  not  have  been  a  mere 
manifestation  of  the  loving  purpose  of  the  Father,  but 
must  have  accomplished  something,  and  that  was  the 
purgation  of  which  I  have  spoken  above.  .  .  .  — Very 
truly  yours,  T.  Erskine. 


VI.  —EDUCATION— NOT  PROBATION. 

232.    TO  THE  SAME. 

Linlathen,  August  17,  1864. 
Vescovo  Carissimo, —  ...  It  is  as  clear  as  day  that, 
however  true  a  truth  may  be,  it  can  never  have  its  full 
legitimate  influence  over  me  and  value  to  me,  until  I 
discern  the  truthfulness  of  it ;  but  I  require  to  be  gradually 
educated  into  the  discernment  of  its  truthfulness;  and 
authority  is  an  indispensable  element  in  this  education. 
A  child  must  begin  in  its  knowledge  of  numbers  by 
believing  on  the  authority  of  its  teacher  that  twice  two  is 
four,  yet  no  one  even  supposes  that  the  child  has  really 
learned  the  truth  on  this  matter  until  it  is  in  a  condition 
to  reject  any  authority  that  would  try  to  give  it  the  idea 
that  twice  two  was  five.  Even  so  in  religious  truth  we 
must  begin  with  authority  :  the  child  is  to  be  educated 


410  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1864. 

into  the  discernment  of  truth,  and  we  know  that  in  regard 
to  much  in  this  department  of  thought,  nine  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  out  of  every  thousand  remain  children  to  the 
end  of  their  lives.  At  the  same  time,  the  object  of  the 
true  teacher  will  always  be  to  help  the  child  (whether  he 
be  young  or  old)  to  discern  the  truthfulness  of  the  truth, 
and  this  is  to  be  done  by  helping  it  from  a  lower  step  to 
a  higher,  by  letting  it  perceive  the  connection  between 
them,  just  as  a  child,  after  it  has  perceived  that  twice  two 
is  four,  may  be  helped  to  see  that  twice  four  is  eight. 
Thus  a  child  may  soon  understand  that  God  wishes  it  to 
be  good,  if  it  has  the  good  fortune  to  have  a  father  or 
mother  who  it  feels  wishes  it  to  be  good,  and  when  it  has 
got  the  knowledge  in  this  way,  it  has  hold  of  the  truth, 
not  on  authority,  but  really.  In  the  same  way  it  may 
learn  that  God's  purpose  in  punishing  it  is  to  make  it 
good,  and  that  the  meaning  of  God's  goodness  in  relation 
to  it  is  that  He  will  use  the  fittest  treatment  (whether 
pain  or  pleasure)  to  make  it  good.  It  may  then  go  on  to 
learn  that  real  trust  in  God  means  a  confidence  that  His 
purpose  in  all  that  He  does  is  to  make  it  good.  It  is 
quite  evident  that  the  duty  of  faith  in  God  might  be 
taught  as  a  dogma  resting  on  the  authority  of  Catechism 
or  Scripture  for  a  hundred  years  without  the  slightest 
good,  because  the  old  child  has  never  discerned  the  truth- 
fulness of  the  truth.  Now,  as  I  believe  that  all  the 
dogmas  of  Eevelation  are  connected  with  that  primal 
truth,  their  truthfulness  must  be  discerned  in  the  light  of 
that  truth  before  they  can  do  the  work  they  are  intended 
for.  The  true  teaching  of  Christianity  is  helping  men  to 
see  that  the  work  of  Christ  is  simply  the  declaration  of 
and  carrying  out  of  this  primal  truth,  that  God's  purpose 
is  to  make  men  good.  For  my  own  part,  I  feel  that  I 
believe  the  Bible  because  of  the  things  that  I  find  in  it, 


XT.  76.  BISHOP  EWING.  411 

rather  than  that  I  believe  them  because  they  are  in  the 
Bible. 

I  believe  that  if  it  were  generally  adopted  as  a  funda- 
mental truth  that  man  was  created  not  to  be  tried  but  to 
be  educated,  it  would  help  to  clear  the  way  both  of  teachers 
and  of  learners  very  much.  The  idea  that  Ave  are  in  a 
state  of  trial  or  probation  necessarily  forces  us  to  look  on 
God  as  a  Judge,  and  forces  us  also  to  be  more  occupied 
with  the  forgiveness  of  sins  than  with  a  deliverance  from  J 
sinfulness.  It  is  this  idea  which  has  given  its  character 
of  substitution  to  the  life  and  death  of  Christ,  representing 
it  as  the  ground  on  which  God  is  justified  in  forgiving 
men,  rather  than  as  the  actings  of  the  root  of  the  human 
tree,  by  which  the  sap  is  prepared  for  and  propelled  into 
the  branches.  It  seems  to  me  also  that  it  is  this  idea 
which  has  made  eternal  punishment  to  be  received  as  a 
principle  in  God's  government.  If  it  were  believed  that 
God  had  created  us  for  education,  and  that  not  one  in  a 
thousand  had  really  received  any  education,  it  would 
generally  be  accepted  without  hesitation  that  the  education 
must  necessarily  proceed  in  the  next  world.  .  .  . 

I  hope  the  Great  Physician's  treatment  may  be  profitable 
both  for  your  soul  and  body. — Yours  very  truly, 

T.    EltSKINE. 


233.    TO  BISHOP  EWING. 

Lixlathex,  August  24,  1SG5. 
My  dear  Bishop, — Your  question  about  God  doing 
evil  that  good  may  come — doing  an  evil  moreover  which 
we  distinctly  see,  to  produce  an  assumed  good  which  we 
do  not  see — is  one  which  has  probably  at  times  darkened 
most  minds.  The  answer  which  my  mind  makes  to  itself 
is,   that  the   spiritual    education   of   individuals,   and   not 


412  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1865. 

the  outward  ordering  of  society,  is  God's  great  object. 
Righteous  causes  in  the  world  are  often  overborne  by 
unrighteous  power,  and  yet  the  man  who  suffers  for  the 
defeated  righteous  cause  completely  justifies  God  in  his 
own  heart,  giving  Him  credit  for  a  purpose  of  training 
which  he  finds  realised  in  his  own  experience.  The  Maho- 
metan ship  arriving  after  the  king's  prayer  that  the  ship 
of  the  true  faith  should  come  first  belongs  to  the  same 
class  of  things.  Is  not  the  way  of  the  Lord  unequal1? 
Whenever  a  man  lives  in  this  world  as  if  it  were  all,  the 
way  of  the  Lord  must  appear  unequal.  What  a  monstrous 
thing  in  appearance  it  seems  that  I  should  come  into 
existence  with  a  predisposition  to  malice  and  envy,  and 
pride  and  sensuality ;  and  then  that  I  should,  in  the 
ordering  of  my  lot,  have  every  opportunity  afforded  me  of 
gratifying  these  evil  inclinations.  Nothing  but  that  life 
is  an  education,  can  give  a  meaning  of  righteousness  to 
this  fact. 

It  seems  to  me  that  God's  eternal,  unchangeable,  and 
unalterable  purpose  of  making  all  men  righteous,  combined 
with  His  perfect  wisdom  and  knowledge,  is  the  only  ex- 
planation of  the  wholesale  slaughter  of  Canaanites  and 
Perizzites,  etc.  If  a  surgeon  knows  to  a  certainty  that  he 
can  cure  a  man  of  cancer  or  frightful  neuralgia  by  putting  a 
knife  through  the  part,  he  would  be  wrong  not  to  do  it.  It 
is  a  great  help  to  apprehend  the  immense  difference  between 
a  man  becoming  good  by  choice  and  being  made  good 
whether  he  will  or  not,  and  the  necessarily  great  superiority 
of  the  one  goodness  over  the  other,  and  hence  to  infer  the 
righteousness  of  all  means  used  to  produce  the  former. 
God  does  me  no  injustice  whatever  misery  He  may  subject 
me  to,  if  He  is  by  it  leading  me  to  this.  The  smallest 
unnecessary  suffering  I  protest  against;  but  any  suffering 
which  is   needed   to   press  me   into    eternal    life,  eternal 


JBT.  76.  BISHOP  E  WING.  413 

righteousness,  I  accept  with  my  whole  reason  and  choice, 
however  much  I  may  shrink  from  it  whilst  it  is  upon  me. 
One  is  apt  to  forget  that  the  small  annoyances  of  life  con- 
stitute parts  of  this  process.  If  I  can  remove  them  I 
consider  myself  entitled  to  do  so,  but  I  am  wrong  if  I  do 
this  with  no  other  thought  than  to  get  rid  of  a  burthen. 
There  is  a  supernatural  element  in  all  my  circumstances 
which  is  nothing  less  or  lower  than  the  will  of  God,  and  I 
ought  to  handle  it  reverently. 

I  should  much  like  to  have  a  few  days  with  you,  but  I 
fear  I  ought  not  to  venture  so  far  from  home.  I  shall 
be  seventy-seven  in  October — very  near  the  conclusion 
certainly !  It  is  a  wonderful  thought  the  passing  through 
the  veil. — Yours  most  truly,  T.  Erskine. 

234.    TO  BISHOP  EWING. 

Linlathen,  September  16,  1865. 

My  dear  Bishop, —  ...  I  am  not  searching  into  the 
origin  of  evil.  I  merely  say  that,  as  a  spiritual  being  is 
only  good  by  choosing  to  be  good,  it  needs  to  be  educated 
into  this  choice  of  goodness,  and  cannot  be  made  good 
in  the  truest  and  highest  sense.  Those  who  suppose 
that  this  goodness  could  be  created  or  made,  can  never 
understand  the  spectacle  of  this  world.  They  think  that 
God  might  have  saved  an  enormous  amount  of  sin  and 
misery  by  creating  men  permanently  good  at  once.  I  do 
not  feel  that  I  am  beating  my  head  against  an  insoluble 
difficulty  when  I  maintain  that  the  goodness  which  God 
desires  to  see  in  men  is  a  goodness  which  in  the  nature 
of  things  can  only  result  from  a  process  of  educational 
exercise.  I  believe  that  every  human  being  is  intended 
to  occupy  a  particular  place  in  the  great  organised  body 
of  the  humanity  of  which  Christ  is  the  Head,  and  that  a 


414  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSk'INE.  1865. 

suitable  course  of  education  will  be  applied  to  each  one, 
through  all  the  stages  of  his  existence,  until  he  is  made  fit 
to  fill  this  place. 

And  when  I  further  see  that  the  great  object  of  God  hi 
this  education  is  to  make  man  sensible  that  he  requires  God 
in  everything,  that  he  can  do  nothing  rightly  without  God, 
then  I  can  understand,  that  there  may  be  a  real  progress  in 
this  education,  even  by  all  the  down-breakings  which  men 
make  in  life.  I  see  that  faith  and  recipiency  are  one  thing. 
The  righteousness  of  faith  is  God  received  into  man's  will. 
as  his  only  possible  portion  and  refuge — "Thy  kingdom 
come.  Thy  will  be  done."  But  a  belief  in  the  inextinguish- 
able loving  purpose  of  God  is  necessary  as  the  basis  of  this 
faith. 

I  am  thankful  to  be  able  in  my  own  mind,  in  my  own 
reason,  to  justify  the  ways  of  God  to  man.  I  am  thankful 
to  be  able  to  give  God  glory  in  all  His  dealings  with  myself 
and  my  race.  .  .  . 

I  would  say   to  ,  "I   don't   deny  that  there  is   a 

trial  and  probation  throughout  man's  whole  life — but  the 
trial  is  subservient  to  the  education :  he  is  tried  that  he  may 
be  educated,  he  is  not  educated  that  he  may  be  tried." 

And  to I  would  say,  "  Men  are  always  under  this 

purpose  of  education,  and  this  purpose  implies  forgiveness 
of  past  sins ;  and  thus  they  are  under  the  forgiveness  of  God. 
whether  they  know  it  or  not."  He  interprets  this  into  an 
affirmation,  on  your  part,  that  men  were  saved  whether  they 
knew  it  or  not ;  but  the  above  was  and  is  your  meaning,  no 
doubt. 

I  would  say  that  faith  means  a  perfect  assurance  that 
what  ought  to  be,  will  be, — that  God  will  certainly  do  that 
which  is  right,  and  that  right  is  the  best  thing  that  can  be 
done  for  me,  and  for  every  one  else.  A  man  who  believes 
that  right  could  ever  possibly  do  him  harm  has  no  true  faith. 


,et.  76.  REV.   G.  D.  BOYLE.  415 

The  man  who  believes  that  right  must  always  do  him  good, 
has  got  hold  of  the  secret  of  truth  and  peace — for  he  will 
also  believe  that  God  must  always  do  right.  This  is  the 
text  of  the  prophecy  of  Habakkuk — one  of  the  most  pre- 
cious books  of  the  Bible — in  my  estimation.  It  is  the 
eternal  blessed  reality  of  that  technical  conventionality  in 
the  English  Constitution,  that  the  king  can  do  no  wrong. 
The  real  King,  the  eternal  King,  can  do  no  wrong.  He 
must  do  right,  and  right  is  the  universal  good — for  you,  for 
me,  and  all — for  bad  and  good. 

I  should  like  now  and  then  to  have  a  word  with  you. 
The  living  voice  is  better  than  the  touch  of  a  pen ;  but 
these  things  are  true,  whether  spoken  or  unspoken.  They 
are  rays  of  that  eternal  light,  of  which  it  is  said,  "  Thy 
sun  shall  no  more  go  down,  for  the  Lord  shall  be  unto  thee 
an  everlasting  light,  and  thy  God  thy  glory." — Ever  truly 
yours,  T.  Erskine. 


VII.— THE  TRUE  CHARACTER  OF  GOD'S 
RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

235.    TO  THE  REV.  G.  D.  BOYLE.1 

Edinburgh,  19th  May  1SG4. 
Dear  Sir, — It  may  seem  strange  to  you  that  I  do  not 
remember  whether  I  answered  your  letter  to  me  of  last 
November,  but  I  don't  like  to  run  the  risk  of  not  answer- 
ing it,  and  would  rather  answer  it  twice.  I  conceive  that 
great  confusion  often  arises  from  misconceptions  as  to  the 

1  "I  never  saw  Mr.  Erskine,  but  he  was  so  well  known  to  many  friends 
of  mine  that,  on  the  suggestion  of  my  friend  the  Rev.  F.  D.  Maurice,  I 
wrote  to  him,  and  had  this  letter  in  reply." — (Extract  from  letter  of  the 
Rev.  G.  D.  Boyle,  Summerhill,  Kidderminster.) 


/ 


41 6  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSK1NE.  1S59. 

meaning  of  righteousness  in  God.  It  is  generally  inter- 
preted to  mean  the  conscientious  and  scrupulous  fairness 
of  a  judge  who  gives  sentence  according  to  a  law  which  he 
is  appointed  to  administer,  and  which  has  no  other  end 
than  to  protect  innocence  and  to  punish  crime.  Now  the 
righteousness  of  God  must  he  very  different  from  this  ;  His 
righteousness  desires  to  communicate  itself,  its  ohject  is  to 
make  men  righteous.  If  you  saw  a  father  punishing  his 
child,  and  you  asked  him  what  he  intended  hy  it,  if  he 
were  to  answer,  I  do  it  because  the  fellow  deserves  it ;  if 
you  then  were  to  ask  him  what  effect  he  expected  to  pro- 
duce on  his  son's  character  by  it,  and  he  were  to  reply,  I 
don't  think  of  that,  I  satisfy  myself  with  knowing  that  he 
deserves  it, — would  you  not  say  at  once  to  him,  You  seem 
to  me  to  have  renounced  both  the  duties  and  the  privileges 
of  a  father ;  you  are  neither  a  righteous  father  nor  a  right- 
eous man ;  God  made  you  a  father  that  you  might  help  Him 
in  His  purpose  to  make  your  child  a  good  man,  and  you 
have  ignored  this  high  calling  entirely.  The  true  right- 
eousness endeavours  to  make  righteous ;  it  can  never  cease 
to  do  so ;  when  it  does  cease,  it  ceases  to  be  righteousness. 
Now  is  it  not  evident  that  this  true  righteousness  necessarily 
implies  and  contains  forgiveness  in  its  very  nature  %  It 
punishes  with  the  purpose  of  blessing,  not  for  punishing's 
sake.  The  gift  of  Christ  is  just  the  manifestation  of  this 
righteous  purpose  of  God.  The  love  which  gave  the  gift 
contains  and  implies  forgiveness.  Now,  if  this  is  just  a 
repetition  of  something  which  I  have  already  written,  you 
will  excuse  it,  remembering  that  I  am  nearer  eighty  than 
seventy.  I  don't  write  with  the  expectation  of  an  answer, 
but  if  you  choose  to  write,  which  will  be  always  gratifying 
to  me,  the  safest  address  in  present  circumstances  (of  flit- 
ting)  is  the  New  Club,  Princes  Street, — I  remain,  dear  Sir, 
yours  truly,  T.  Erskine. 


jet.  78.  MRS.  BA  TTEN.  417 

VIII.  —  SUDDEN  CONVERSIONS. 

236.    TO  MRS.  BATTEN. 

Linlathen,  11th  August  1859. 

Dear  Mrs.  Batten, — The  information  contained  in 
your  own  letter,  and  in  Mr.  Brendon's,  and  the  other, 
about  the  conversions  taking  place  in  your  neighbourhood 
and  elsewhere,  is  very  remarkable  and  very  interesting. 

I  do  not  pretend  to  judge  them.  I  am  sure  the  Lord 
desires  the  conversion  of  all,  and  that  His  Spirit  is  striv- 
ing with  all,  whether  they  yield  to  the  sacred  influence  or 
resist  it. 

A  conversion,  that  is  to  say  a  true  conversion,  implies 
a  knowledge  of  God,  and  of  the  relation  in  which  we  stand 
to  Him  in  His  Son.  It  implies  a  knowledge  of  God  as  a 
holy,  loving  Father,  who  desires  for  us  that  we  should  be 
partakers  of  His  own  holiness  and  His  own  blessedness. 
But  a  man  may  be  awakened  without  being  converted;  he 
may  discern  that  it  is  a  fearful  thing  to  be  opposed  to 
the  God  who  holds  him  and  all  things  in  His  hands.  He 
may  discern  that  the  words  which  he  has  been  in  the 
habit  of  using  about  God  and  sin  are  the  representatives 
of  tremendous  realities,  but  until  he  knows  that  this  God 
is  his  own  loving  Father,  he  can  never  turn  to  Him  truly. 
I  would  say  that  God  lives  by  and  in  His  own  Will,  that 
Will  is  the  eternal  life  of  God,  and  when  a  created  spirit 
receives  God's  Will  into  its  will,  it  becomes  partaker  of 
the  eternal  life.  This  I  conceive  is  salvation ;  I  don't 
understand  any  other  meaning  of  salvation.  This  is  what 
[  believe  man  was  made  for;  his  danger,  his  temptation,  is 
self-will, — making  himself  his  centre.  This  is  sin,  that 
which  separates  a  man  from  God  and  his  fellow-creatures. 

Jesus  came  to  save  men  from  sin,  from  this  sin,  which 
2  D 


418  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1859. 

is  the  root  and  summing-up  of  all  sin.  This  then  is  the 
salvation  of  Christ :  I  don't  believe  that  He  came  to 
deliver  men  from  any  penalty.  I  believe  that  every 
penalty  which  God  has  inflicted  on  men  has  been  for  good, 
so  that  deliverance  from  it  would  be  an  evil.  I  cannot  see 
any  distinction  between  salvation  and  the  conformity  of 
the  will  to  God. 

I  agree  with  Mr.  Brendon  that  I  should  expect  more 
lasting  results  from  a  silent  conversion  than  from  a  more 
excited  one,  still  it  is  the  actual  turning  to  God  which  is 
the  important  matter. 

In  this  country  we  are  all  brought  up  from  childhood 
with  the  great  words  of  Christianity  sounding  in  our  ears,  but 
they  have  no  meaning  to  us  until  we  hear  them  in  the  spirit. 

This  discovery  of  the  truth  does  not  make  God  our 
Father.  He  always  was  and  is  so ;  He  is  the  Father  of 
the  prodigal  whilst  eating  the  husks  with  the  swine,  but 
until  he  knows  His  Father's  love  he  shuts  out  the  eternal 
life,  because  he  cannot  trust  his  Father.  He  cannot  open 
his  will  to  let  in  and  embrace  his  Father's  Will,  for  that 
seems  to  threaten  him  with  destruction ;  but  when  he  dis- 
covers that  that  Will  seeks  only  to  deliver  him  from  the 
disorder  and  confusion  and  misery  which  his  blinded  self- 
seeking  has  produced,  then  he  can  and  will  say,  "  Search  me, 
0  God,  and  know  my  heart ;  try  me,  and  know  my  thoughts, 
and  see  if  there  be  any  wicked  way  in  me,  and  lead  me  in 
the  way  everlasting."  He  now  sees  that  what  God  desires 
for  him  is  the  very  thing  which  he  desires  for  himself, 
but  which  he  can  only  get  through  a  participation  in  God's 
Spirit,  and  through  yielding  himself  to  all  God's  training. 

"  Open  Thou  mine  eyes,  that  I  may  see  wondrous  things 
out  of  Thy  law."  God  is  my  Father,  Christ  is  my  head, 
and  the  Spirit  proceeding  from  the  Father  and  the  Son  is 
breathing  into  my  conscience. 


jet.  70.  MRS.  BATTEN.  419 


This  is  all  true,  whether  I  believe  it  or  not.  My  faith 
cannot  make  it,  but  until  I  know  Him  whose  voice  it  is, 
until  I  know  whence  that  voice  cometh,  and  whither  it 
would  lead  me,  I  am  not,  and  cannot  be,  born  of  it;  for 
this  is  life  eternal,  to  know  Thee,  the  only  true  God,  and 
Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou  hast  sent ;  and  the  birth  of  the 
spirit,  the  birth  from  above,  is  just  to  receive  the  eternal 
life,  to  receive  the  will  of  God,  instead  of  the  will  of  the 
flesh,  or  self-will. 

One  man  may  teach  another  words,  but  he  cannot  even 
give  him  thought,  much  less  can  he  give  him  a  realising 
apprehension  of  the  realities  of  the  unseen  world. 

I  think  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  wisdom  in  Mr. 
Brendon's  observation,  that  in  the  case  of  these  sudden 
conversions  there  is  always  the  danger  of  the  person  trust- 
ing in  the  conversion,  instead  of  trusting  in  God.  In  fact 
there  is  a  continual  temptation  to  escape  difficulties  by 
substituting  a  sham  for  a  reality.  I  may  have  eternal  life 
for  ten  minutes,  but  I  must  abide  in  it  by  a  sustained  faith 
in  God  and  by  the  continual  action  of  my  will,  if  I  would 
keep  the  blessing.  I  must  fight  the  good  fight  of  faith, 
not  merely  to  get  hold  of  eternal  life,  but  to  keep  hold  of 
it,  and  to  make  progress  in  it. 

Man  was  created  perfect,  that  is,  merely  without  the 
wrong  bias ;  and  he  was  placed  where  he  was  that  he 
might  learn  the  superiority  of  God's  Will  to  his  own,  and 
practically  to  acknowledge  that  superiority.  He  had  the 
self-will  in  him  which  he  was  to  keep  in  subjection  to  the 
will  of  God.  This  he  could  only  do  by  continual  trust 
and  continual  watchfulness,  but  he  seems  to  have  for- 
gotten that  he  was  placed  there  to  learn  to  fight,  and 
thought  only  of  enjoying,  and  thus  the  first  temptation 
overcame  him.  And  are  we  to  think  ourselves  secure  be- 
cause we  have  tasted  of  the  love  of  God  1 


420  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1859. 

I  don't  believe  that  a  man  is  or  can  ever  be  stereotyped 
either  in  good  or  evil.  To  suppose  that  God  is  good  by 
necessity  and  not  by  His  own  will  would  be  to  degrade 
Him ;  and  it  must  be  the  same  with  the  creatures  made  in 
His  image.  Moral  good  always  implies  choice,  so  man  can 
neither  be  made  good  nor  upheld  in  good  by  a  mere  act 
of  power.  And  yet  neither  conversion  nor  perseverance 
in  good  is  man's  own  act.  They  are  the  voluntary  yield- 
ings  of  man  to  the  actings  of  God.  We  are  the  branches 
of  the  Vine,  whether  we  receive  the  sap  or  not ;  our  will 
cannot  make  the  sap,  or  be  a  substitute  for  it.  The  voice 
of  conscience  is  the  effort  of  the  sap  to  enter  into  the 
branch  ;  that  effort  gives  us  the  power  to  receive.  Man  is 
made  to  be  a  continual  receiver,  and  in  order  to  this  he 
must  be  in  a  continual  state  of  trustful  dependence.  We 
are  to  be  fellow-workers  with  God,  I  suppose  and  believe, 
for  ever. 

I  believe  that  the  baptism  of  an  infant  means  simply  to 
declare  God's  fatherly  love  and  relation  to  the  child,  and 
His  purpose  to  educate  it  for  Himself, — this  I  believe  to 
be  true  of  every  child  born  into  this  world.  Baptism 
declares  the  truth,  it  does  not  make  it.  The  child  must 
afterwards  learn  to  yield  its  will. 

I  believe  also  that  the  forgiveness  to  be  preached  through 
Christ  is  the  same  thing  which  is  declared  in  baptism. 

It  is  not  withdrawing  any  penalty,  it  is  the  declaration 
of  God's  fatherly  love  and  relationship  to  every  human 
being,  and  His  unchanged  and  unchangeable  purpose  to 
train  him  into  conformity  with  the  Divine  Will,  which 
will  be  carried  forward  on  the  other  side  of  the  grave  as 
well  as  on  this. — I  am,  etc.,  T.  Euskine. 


mt.  70.  BISHOP  EWING.  421 

IX.— ETERNITY  OF  LIFE-OF  PUNISHMENT— OF  EVIL. 

237.    TO  MADAME  FOREL. 

41  Charlotte  Square,  Edinburgh, 
24th  April  1862. 

...  I  BELIEVE  as  you  do,  that  eternity  has  nothing  to  do 
with  duration.  I  think  eternal  means  essential  injDpj^ojsition 
to  phenomenal.  So  eternal  life  is  God's  owiiTife7~itis  essen- 
ti^llife ;  and  eternal  punishment  is  the  misery  belonging 
to  the  nature  of  sin,  and  not  coming  from  outward  causes. 
A  man  who  receives  the  will  of  God  into  his  inner  being 
is  taking  hold  of  eternal  life,  for  God's  life  is  in  His  will, 
or  perhaps  His  Avill  is  His  life,  and  thus  a  participation  in 
His  will  is  a  participation  in  His  life.  Que  ton  royaume 
(regne)  vienne,  que  ta  volonte  soit  faite.  This  is  salvation, 
— when  a  man  uses  his  individual  will  merely  as  the  reci- 
pient  of  God's  will.  All  the  planets  have  their  separate 
individual  centres  of  gravitation,  but  then  only  there  is 
order,  when  these  are  kept  in  subordination  to  the  sun  as 
the  common  centre.  Salvation  is  true  order  in  the  moral 
world.  It  means  a  deliverance  from  disorder,  not  a  deliver- 
ance from  punishment,  for  punishment  is  desirable  when 
it  corrects  disorder.  Give  my  affectionate  regards  to 
Madame  Vinet  .  .  .  and  believe  me,  very  truly  yours, 

T.  Erskine. 

23S.    TO  BISHOP  EWING. 

3  Charlotte  Square,  February  1,  1S64. 

My  dear  Bishop, — The  question  of  the  eternity  of  evil 

has  a  difficulty  in  it  beyond  what  appears  at  first.     If  we 

suppose  eternal  creation,  we  can  scarcely  escape  from  the 

eternity  of  evil.     I  believe  that  there  is  a  continual  con- 


422  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1864. 

test,  and  a  successful  contest,  of  good  and  God  against 
evil :  but  I  believe  also  that  whilst  the  creation  of  moral 
agents  Avith  free  wills  continues,  the  evolution  of  evil  from 
these  free  wills  will  take  place.  Thus  the  eternal  existence 
of  evil  is  a  quite  distinct  idea  from  the  permitted  per- 
manency of  evil. 

What  your  Charge  I  suppose  meant  to  suggest  was,  that 
God  always  must  contend,  and  contend  successfully,  against 
evil,  and  never  consents  to  its  permanency.  The  eternity 
of  evil,  if  true,  does  not  arise  from  the  permanency  of  evil, 
but  from  ever  new  creation  of  free-wijl  agents,  who  in  then- 
progress  evolve  evil. — I  remain,  yours  always, 

T.  Erskine. 

239.    TO  AN  UNKNOWN  CORRESPONDENT. 

Faith  in  God,  trust  in  the  righteous  God,  the  Almighty 
Maker  and  Ruler  of  all  things,  contains  within  it  the 
assurance  that  good  must  overcome  evil  universally.  But 
what  is  the  victory  of  Good  over  Evil  %  Is  it  the  destruc- 
tion and  annihilation  of  all  evil  beings  1  No,  that  is  not 
the  victory  of  good  over  evil,  but  the  victory  of  strength 
over  weakness.  The  victory  of  good  over  evil  is  the  con- 
version of  all  evil  beings  into  good  beings ;  it  is  the 
making  darkness  light  and  crooked  things  straight. 

I  am  saved  from  pantheism  by  the  consciousness  that  I 
can  and  do  resist  God,  and  also  that  I  can  and  do  yield 
myself  to  Him. 


X. -FINAL  SALVATION  OF  ALL. 
240.    TO  MR.  CRAIG.1 

Dear  Sir, — Your  epistle  on  the  "  Final  Salvation   of 
1  Author  of  "  Final  Salvation,"  etc. 


MR.   CRAIG.  423 


All  Men  from  Sin  "  has  been  put  into  my  hands  by  a  friend, 
who  knew  that  the  principles  contained  in  it  are  those 
with  which  I  have  long  concurred  and  sympathised  :  and 
having  read  it,  I  cannot  help  reaching  out  to  you  a 
brotherly  hand,  and  saying,  God  speed  you  ! 

The  title  of  your  pamphlet  has  been,  I  think,  well 
chosen.  It  is  not  a  deliverance  from  punishment,  but 
a  deliverance  from  sin,  that  you  desire  or  expect.  All 
punishment  appointed  by  God,  whether  it  be  the  natural 
result  of  sin,  or  any  superadded  chastisement,  is  intended 
by  Him  "for  our  profit,  that  we  may  be  partakers  of  His 
holiness;"  so  that  a  deliverance  from  punishment,  instead 
of  being  a  thing  to  be  desired,  would,  in  fact,  be  equivalent 
to  the  deliverance  of  a  sick  man  from  the  necessary  and 
wise  prescription  of  a  skilful  physician.  This  is  the 
revealed  purpose  of  punishment, — a  purpose  agreeing  with 
the  character  of  God,  and  with  the  relation  in  which  He 
stands  to  men.  He  is  the  "righteous  Father" — "the 
Father  of  the  spirits  of  all  flesh,"  "  who  willeth  not  the 
death  of  a  sinner  ;  but  that  all  should  come  to  repentance." 
Let  us  hold  fast  the  purpose  of  God  in  all  punishment, 
and  remember  that  as  it  is  the  purpose  of  Him  who 
changeth  not,  but  who  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and 
for  ever,  it  cannot  be  a  purpose  confined  to  any  one  stage 
of  our  being,  but  must  extend  over  all  the  stages,  and  the 
whole  duration  of  our  being.  It  is  surely  most  unreason- 
able to  suppose  that  God  should  change  His  manner  of 
dealing  with  us,  as  soon  as  we  quit  this  world,  and  that  if 
we  have  resisted,  up  to  that  moment,  His  gracious  endea- 
vours to  teach  us  righteousness,  He  should  at  once  abandon 
the  purpose  for  which  He  created  us  and  redeemed  us,  and 
give  us  up  to  the  everlasting  bondage  of  sin.  Do  we  not 
feel  that  such  a  supposition  is  too  horrible — that  it  is  most 
dishonouring  to  Him  who  has  said,  "  I  will  never  leave 


424  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 

thee,  nor  forsake  thee,"  and,  "  The  mountains  shall  depart, 
and  the  hills  be  removed,  but  my  kindness  shall  not 
depart  from  thee,  neither  shall  the  covenant  of  my 
peace  be  removed,  saith  the  Lord  that  hath  mercy  on 
thee"? 

This  reasoning  agrees  with  the  argument  presented  to 
us  in  the  5th  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Komans,  where 
the  Apostle,  in  setting  forth  the  fulness  of  the  redemption 
by  Christ,  declares  that  the  benefit  through  Him  is,  in 
extent,  parallel  to  the  evil  introduced  by  Adam ;  that  is, 
that  as  the  evil  affects  all  without  exception,  so  the  bless- 
ing embraces  all  without  exception.  Let  any  one  read 
the  12th  and  18th  verses  of  that  chapter,  as  if  in 
juxtaposition,  which  they  really  are  by  construction, 
and  he  will  find  himself  constrained  to  admit  that  this 
and  nothing  less  could  have  been  the  meaning  of  the 
writer.  Indeed,  through  the  whole  chapter  there  is  a 
preponderating  advantage  thrown  into  the  scale  of  the 
redemption,  to  the  effect  that  not  only  were  the  evils 
of  the  fall  met  by  the  salvation  of  Christ,  but  that  the 
gain  far  surpassed  the  loss,  so  that  it  is  really  contrary 
to  sound  criticism  to  hold,  that  in  that  most  marked  and 
most  remarkable  passage,  where  the  comparative  results  of 
the  fall  and  the  restoration  are  expressly  considered,  any 
ground  is  allowed  or  given  for  a  doubt  as  to  the  final 
salvation  of  the  whole  human  race.  The  11th  chapter 
of  that  Epistle  is  pervaded  by  the  same  doctrine,  being  a 
declaration  that  God's  election  does  not  affect  the  truth 
and  certainty  of  the  final  salvation  of  men,  but  relates  to 
the  temporary  use  which  He  makes  of  individuals  or  nations 
to  accomplish  the  ends  of  His  government.  I  know  well, 
that  most  people  in  this  country  feel  that  all  such  argu- 
ments and  expositions  are  met  and  overturned  by  the 
solemn  words  of   our  Lord  in  the  25th  chapter  of   St. 


MR.    CRAIG.  425 


Matthew,  and  by  other  passages  of  a  like  import.  I  feel,  on 
the  contrary,  that  the  passages  which  I  have  quoted  from 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  ought  really  to  be  considered 
as  the  ruling  passages  on  the  question,  and  that  those  from 
St.  Matthew,  and  others  of  the  same  class,  should  be 
explained  by  them,  and  in  accordance  with  them,  because 
in  them  the  fall  and  the  restoration  are  expressly  compared 
with  each  other,  in  their  whole  results,  and  the  entire 
superiority  claimed  for  the  restoration  in  amount  of  benefit, 
and  entire  equality  in  point  of  extent;  all  which  would 
seem  to  me  to  be  utterly  nullified  by  the  fact  of  a  single 
human  spirit  being  abandoned  and  consigned  to  a  perma- 
nent state  of  sin  and  misery.  I  therefore  understand  that 
awful  scene  represented  in  St.  Matthew,  as  declaring 
the  certainty  of  the  connection  between  sin  and  misery, 
but  not  as  a  finality.  I  do  not  believe  that  cllgoihos,  the 
Greek  word  rendered  "eternal"  and  "everlasting"  by  our 
translators,  really  has  that  meaning.  I  believe  that  it 
refers  to  man's  essential  or  spiritual  state,  and  not  to  time, 
cither  finite  or  infinite.  Eternal  life  is  living  in  the  love 
of  God;  eternal  death  is  living  in  self;  so  that  a  man 
may  be  in  eternal  life  or  in  eternal  death  for  ten  minutes, 
as  he  changes  from  the  one  state  to  the  other. 

There  is  no  lack  of  arguments  for  the  general  view 
which  I  have  taken  of  this  subject,  drawn  cither  from 
conscience  or  the  Scriptures,  or  both.  There  is  one  which 
cannot  but  have  great  weight  with  all  who  fairly  consider 
it.  Throughout  even  the  Old  Testament,  God  is  more 
constantly  presented  to  us  as  a  Father  than  in  any  other 
character ;  and  in  the  New,  our  Lord  speaks  of  it  as  the 
chief  purpose  of  His  appearance  in  this  world,  to  reveal 
His  Father,  as  the  Father  of  the  whole  human  race.  In 
both,  frequent  appeals  are  made  to  our  sense  of  the  love 
and  desires  and  obligations  of  an  earthly  parent  towards 


426    •  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKTNE. 

his  children,  in  order  to  impress  on  us  the  nature  of  the 
relation  in  which  God  stands  to  each  one  of  us  \  and  very 
frequently  these  appeals  are  accompanied  with  the  assur- 
ance that  the  love  of  the  human  parent  is  but  a  faint 
reflection  of  the  love  of  the  Heavenly  Father.  What  can 
he  more  touching  than  the  appeal  in  the  prophet  Isaiah  % 
"  Can  a  woman  forget  her  sucking  child,  that  she  should 
not  have  compassion  on  the  son  of  her  womb  %  Yea,  they 
may  forget,  yet  will  not  I  forget  thee."  The  parallel 
passage  in  the  New  Testament  is  this  :  "  If  ye  then,  being- 
evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  to  your  children,  how 
much  more  will  your  Heavenly  Father  give!"  But  we 
all  feel  that  the  first  and  ever-during  duty  of  a  father 
is  to  endeavour  to  make  his  child  righteous.  A  righteous 
father  must  always  do  this.  The  moment  he  ceases  to  do 
this,  he  ceases  to  be  a  righteous  father.  However  the  son 
transgresses,  we  never  feel  that  the  father's  obligation  to 
try  to  bring  him  back  can  be  dissolved.  And  the  righteous 
father's  heart  goes  along  with  his  obligation ;  he  could  not 
give  up  his  son  although  the  whole  world  agreed  that  he 
had  done  all  that  could  be  done  for  him,  and  that  it  was 
useless  to  try  any  more.  And  shall  we  not  reason  confi- 
dently that  the  righteous  Heavenly  Father  will  do  exceed- 
ing abundantly  above  all  that  the  righteous  earthly  father 
can  either  desire  or  effect  1  But  does  this  desire  for  the 
righteousness  of  his  child,  in  the  heart  of  the  earthly  father, 
terminate  with  the  child's  life  1  Although  he  is  only  the 
father  of  his  body,  does  he  not  yearn  after  the  soul  of  his 
son,  who  has  been,  perhaps,  cut  off  suddenly  in  the  midst 
of  sin  and  thoughtlessness  ]  He  does  indeed  yearn  after  his 
soul,  and  carries  it  on  his  heart  a  heavy  burden,  mourning 
all  his  life  long,  and  wavering  between  hope  and  fear  as  to 
what  his  everlasting  lot  may  be.  The  righteous  earthly 
father,  being  only  the  father  of  the  child's  body,  feels  thus 


MR.   CRAIG.  427 


and  acts  thus ;  and  can  we  suppose  that  the  Father  of  the 
spirits  of  all  flesh  will  throw  off  His  care  for  the  souls  of 
His  children  when  they  leave  this  world,  because  they  have, 
during  their  stay  here,  resisted  His  efforts  to  make  them 
righteous  %  The  supposition  seems  monstrous  and  incred- 
ible, and  in  truth  could  not  be  acquiesced  in  by  any  human 
being,  were  it  not  for  certain  false  ideas  concerning  the 
justice  or  righteousness  of  God. 

I  believe  that  love  and  righteousness  and  justice  in  God 
mean  exactly  the  same  thing,  namely,  a  desire  to  bring 
His  whole  moral  creation  into  a  participation  of  His  own 
character  and  His  own  blessedness.  He  has  made  us 
capable  of  this,  and  He  will  not  cease  from  using  the  best 
means  for  accomplishing  it  in  us  all.  When  I  think  of 
God  making  a  creature  of  such  capacities,  it  seems  to  me 
almost  blasphemous  to  suppose  that  He  will  throw  it  from 
Him  into  everlasting  darkness,  because  it  has  resisted  His 
gracious  purposes  towards  it  for  the  natural  period  of 
human  life.  No ;  He  who  waited  so  long  for  the  forma- 
tion of  a  piece  of  old  red  sandstone  will  surely  wait  witli 
much  long-suffering  for  the  perfecting  of  a  human  spirit. 

I  have  found  myself  helped  in  taking  hold  of  this  hope 
by  understanding  that  God  really  made  man  that  He 
might  educate  Him,  not  that  He  might  try  him.  If  we 
suppose  man  to  be  merely  on  his  trial  here,  we  more 
readily  adopt  the  idea  of  a  final  judgment  coming  after 
the  day  of  trial  is  over.  But  if  we  suppose  man  to  be 
created,  not  to  be  tried,  but  to  be  educated,  we  cannot 
believe  that  the  education  is  to  terminate  with  this  life, 
considering  that  there  is  so  large  a  proportion  of  the 
human  race  who  die  in  infancy,  and  that  of  those  who 
survive  that  period  there  are  so  many  who  can  scarcely 
he  said  to  receive  any  education  at  all,  and  that  so  few — 
not  one  in  a  million — appear  to  benefit  by  their  education. 


428  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 

That,  as  there  are  great  judgment  days  in  this  world,  so 
there  will  be  great  judgment  days  in  the  other  world,  I 
have  no  doubt ;  but  I  believe  that  they  are  all  subservient 
to  the  grand  purpose  of  spiritual  education.  We  are 
judged  in  order  to  be  thereby  educated;  Ave  are  not 
educated  that  we  may  be  judged.  I  believe  that  each 
individual  human  being  has  been  created  to  fill  a  particular 
place  in  the  great  body  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  a  special 
education  is  needed  to  fit  each  one  for  his  place.  Whilst 
Ave  are  ignorant  of  the  destined  place  of  each,  it  must  of 
course  be  impossible  for  us  to  understand  the  Avonderful 
variety  of  treatment,  through  which  the  great  Teacher  is 
conducting  all  by  a  right  Avay  to  the  right  end.  But  He 
knows  and  does  AArhat  is  best  and  Avisest ;  and  may  there 
not  be  a  necessity  in  some  cases  for  treatment  which  can 
only  be  had  on  the  other  side  of  the  grave  1  And  shall 
Ave  in  our  short-sightedness  consider  Him  debarred  from 
any  such  treatment  1 

I  cannot  believe  that  any  human  being  can  be  beyond 
the  reach  of  God's  grace  and  the  sanctifying  poAver  of  His 
Spirit.  And  if  all  are  within  His  reach,  is  it  possible  to 
suppose  that  He  Avill  allow  any  to  remain  unsanctified  1 
Is  not  the  love  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ  a  love  unlimited, 
unbounded,  which  Avill  not  leave  undone  anything  which 
love  could  desire  ]  It  was  surely  nothing  else  than  the 
complete  and  universal  triumph  of  that  love  which  Paul 
Avas  contemplating  when  he  cried  out,  "  Oh  the  depth  of 
the  riches  both  of  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God  ! " 
(Rom.  xi.  33.) 

Let  me  conclude  now  hy  saying  that  I  am  persuaded 
that  this  doctrine  which  you  advocate  is  the  only  sufficient 
ground  for  an  entire  confidence  in  God,  which  shall,  at  the 
same  time,  be  a  righteous  confidence.  According  to  it, 
God  created  man  that  he  might  be  a  partaker  in  His  oAvn 


MR.    CKAIG.  42!) 


holiness,  as  the  only  right  and  blessed  state  possible  for 
him.  If  I  truly  apprehend  this — if  I  truly  apprehend 
that  righteousness  and  blessedness  are  one  and  the  same 
thing,  and  just  the  very  thing  I  most  need — I  shall 
rejoice  to  know  that  God  desires  my  righteousness ;  and 
if  I  further  know  that  He  will  never  cease  to  desire  it 
and  to  insist  upon  it,  and  that  all  His  dealings  with  me 
are  for  this  one  end,  then  I  can  have  an  entire  confidence 
in  Him,  as  desiring  for  me  the  very  thing  I  desire  for 
myself.  I  shall  feel  that  I  am  perfectly  safe  in  His  hand, 
that  I  could  not  be  so  safe  in  any  other  hand ;  for  that, 
as  He  desires  the  best  thing  for  me,  so  He  alone  knows 
and  can  use  the  best  means  of  accomplishing  it  in  me. 
Thus  I  can  actually  adopt  the  sentiment  of  the  Psalmist, 
and  say,  "  Thou  art  my  strong  habitation,  whereunto  I  may 
continually  resort.  Thou  hast  given  commandment  to 
save  me,  for  Thou  art  my  rock  and  fortress."  And  I  can 
adopt  these  words  without  any  feeling  of  self-trust,  because 
my  confidence  has  no  back  look  to  myself,  but  rests  simply 
on  God.  The  greatest  sinner  upon  earth  might  at  once 
adopt  those  words,  if  he  only  saw  that  righteousness  was 
his  true  and  only  possible  blessedness,  and  that  God  would 
never  cease  desiring  this  righteousness  for  him.  I  am 
fully  persuaded  that  the  real  meaning  of  believing  in 
Jesus  Christ  is  believing  in  this  eternal  purpose  of  God, 
the  purpose  of  making  us  living  members  of  the  body  of  His 
Son.  And  as  this  blessed  faith  helps  me  to  love  God  and 
trust  Him  for  myself,  so  it  helps  me  to  love  my  fellow- 
creatures,  because  it  assures  me  that,  however  debased 
and  unloveable  they  may  be  at  present,  yet  the  time  is 
coming  when  they  shall  all  be  living  members  of  Christ's 
body,  partakers  in  the  holiness  and  beauty  and  blessedness 
of  their  Lord. — I  remain,  dear  sir,  Yours  truly, 

T.  Erskine. 


430  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1864. 

241.    TO  BISHOP  EWING. 

Keie,  June  18,  1864. 

YESCOVO  Carisslmo, — You  know  that  I  believe  that  the 
Bible  was  given  to  us,  not  to  be  cited  as  a  peremptory 
authority  in  anything,  but  to  help  us  to  understand  the 
character  of  God,  and  the  relation  in  which  we  stand  to 
Him ;  so  that  I  should  regard  it  as  a  misuse  of  it  were  I 
to  allow  any  particular  passages  in  it  to  outweigh  the 
general  instruction  which  it  contains  on  these  points,  and 
yet  I  can  say  that  those  passages  which  give  the  most 
direct  utterance  on  the  subject  of  the  final  destiny  of  man 
seem  to  me  to  be  most  unequivocal  declarations  of  uni- 
versal deliverance.   .  .  . 

But  now  to  leave  the  general  instruction  which  the 
Bible  gives  as  to  the  character  of  God,  and  to  go  to 
particular  passages  referring  to  the  final  destination  of 
man,  let  me  ask  you  to  re-read  the  5th  and  11th  chapters 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  It  seems  to  me  impossible 
to  read  those  two  chapters  without  the  conviction  that 
St.  Paul,  at  least,  was  fully  persuaded  that  all  men  should 
finally  be  saved.  In  the  5th  he  contrasts  the  loss  of  Adam 
with  the  gain  of  Christ,  and  whilst  he  puts  them  exactly 
on  a  par  in  point  of  extent,  he  claims  a  superabundance  of 
blessedness  for  the  latter  over  the  condemnation  of  the 
former.  Nothing  can  be  clearer  than  this.  But  proceed 
now  to  the  11th  chapter.  The  apostle  begins  by  saying 
that  it  would  not  be  fair  to  say  that  God  had  cast  away 
His  people,  because  it  was  evident  and  undenied  that  some, 
were  not  cast  away ;  but  still  he  acknowledged  that  though 
there  was  an  election  that  had  obtained  what  they  sought 
for,  yet  the  nation,  as  a  nation,  had  failed  to  obtain  it ; 
nay  more,  that  they  were  blinded,  and  under  a  judicial 
sentence  of  spiritual  slumber  and  blindness,  and  deafness, 


mv.  78.  REV.  JOHN  YOUNG.  431 

as  it  is  written  in  the  7th  verse,  "  Israel  hath  not  obtained 
that  which  he  seeketli  for,  but  the  election  hath  obtained 
it,  and  the  rest  were  blinded."  So  here  we  have  the 
♦■lection  satisfactorily  disposed  of;  and  we  are  invited  to 
follow  the  apostle  in  what  he  sees  of  the  future  history  of 
the  rest  who  were  blinded.  This  future  history  he  takes 
up  at  the  11th  verse.  "I  say  then,  Have  they  stumbled 
that  they  should  fall  %  God  forbid  !  impossible,  but  rather 
through  their  fall  salvation  is  come  unto  the  Gentiles  to 
provoke  them  to  jealousy."  Now  read  the  12th  verse, 
and  the  15th  and  16th  verses;  then  go  on  to  the  25th 
and  26th  verses;  and  so  to  the  end  of  the  chapter;  and 
then  say  whether  in  your  conscience  you  can  believe  that 
St.  Paul  did  not  intend  to  teach  the  final  salvation  of  all 
men ;  for  it  must  be  of  all  men  if  it  is  of  all  the  Israelites  ; 
and  to  suppose  that  such  a  word  as  this  could  really  have 
an  honest  fulfilment,  by  the  conversion  and  salvation  of 
some  distant  future  generation  of  Jews,  whilst  all  the 
intermediate  generations  were  left  to  perish,  appears  to 
me  gross  trifling  with  the  character  of  God.  Strange  as 
it  appears,  I  have  found  very  few  people  who  have  read 

the   11th  chapter  with  real  attention.     With I  feel 

the  question  to  be  more  and  more  essential  every  day. — 
Yours  affectionately,  T.  ERSKINE. 


242.    TO  THE  REV.    FOHN  YOUNG. 

18G6. 
My  DEAR  Sir, — My  hope  for  the  final  salvation  of  all 
men  rests,  in  the  first  place,  on  the  ground  in  which  I  know 
you  believe  as  I  do,  namely,  the  desire  of  God  that  all  men 
shoidd  be  righteous  ;  in  the  second  place,  on  the  assurance 
that  God  sees  the  end  from  the  beginning,  and  will  never 
bring   into  existence   any  spirits   which   He   foresees  will 


432  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSK1NE.  1866. 

finally  resist  His  desire.  But  further,  I  may  perhaps 
appear  to  you  to  think  too  lightly  of  sin;  but  I  cannot 
help  thinking  that  there  may  be  a  teaching  through  sin,  an 
instruction  in  righteousness  through  sin,  which  perhaps 
could  not  be  given  in  any  other  way.  The  conviction  of 
the  rightness  and  blessedness  of  a  perfect  trust  in  God  may 
be  more  efficiently  taught  through  the  conviction  of  the  sin 
and  misery  of  self-trust  and  self-seeking  than  through  simple 
spiritual  apprehension.  May  not  Peter  have  learned  from 
his  sin  in  denying  his  Lord  a  lesson  of  self-distrust  and 
trust  in  God  which  the  words  of  Jesus  could  not  have  given 
him  ]  God  foresaw  the  whole  results  which  would  follow 
the  creation  of  creatures  endowed  with  free-will,  and  with 
these  all  before  Him,  He  took  the  step.  He  saw  the  enormous 
amount  of  sin  and  misery  that  would  be  produced,  yet  He 
proceeded  in  the  work.  I  trust  in  His  trust,  in  His  love, 
and  in  His  wisdom.  .   .   . 

When  I  think  of  having  actually  resisted  the  righteous 
will  of  God  to  gratify  my  own  selfish  will,  it  appears  so 
monstrous  that  though  God  declares  that  He  forgives  me, 
I  cannot  forgive  myself,  I  cannot  look  at  it  without  horror ; 
but  if  I  come  to  feel  that  through  the  deep  contrition  arising 
from  this  transgression  and  the  assurance  of  a  love  which 
proceeds  in  its  endeavours  to  train  me  in  righteousness,  un- 
damped by  all  this  iniquity,  my  heart  has  been  really 
brought  to  trust  in  God  more  and  to  die  to  self  more,  then 
I  become  reconciled  to  myself ;  I  can  think  of  my  sin,  not 
with  less  but  more  hatred  of  it,  yet  with  less  horror  of 
myself.  I  can  look  forward  to  eternity  without  the  idea 
of  the  hideous  memory  making  existence  painful.  I  have 
gained  by  sin.  I  have  gained  righteousness  through  means 
of  it.  If  this  is  possible  I  don't  think  God  would  prevent 
sin  even  if  He  could. 

I  send  this  to  you  very  ill  written,  scarcely  legible,  but 


jet.  78.  REV.  JOHN  YOUNG.  433 

you  may  find  it  worth  spelling  out.     Farewell. — Very  truly 
yours,  T.  E. 

243.    TO  THE  EEV.  JOHN  YOUNG. 

16  Charlotte  Squaee,  \Wi  Feb.  1867. 

Dear  Sir, —  .  .  .  There  is  one  thing  which  I  have  long 
felt  to  be  a  great  defect  in  our  popular  theologies,  the  want 
of  distinguishing  between  faith,  as  meaning  filial  trust  in 
God — the  faith  which  Jesus  Christ  Himself  had  and  lived 
by — and  faith  as  meaning  belief  in  what  Jesus  Christ  was, 
and  did,  and  suffered.  The  value  of  the  first  is  that  it 
constitutes  spiritual  life,  whilst  the  value  of  the  second 
consists  in  its  furnishing  and  explaining  and  illustrating 
the  ground  on  which  the  first  rests. 

A  man  who,  though  entirely  unacquainted  with  the 
Jewish  or  Christian  Scriptures,  had  yet  attained  to  filial 
trust  in  God,  to  the  confident  assurance  that  God  was  his 
loving  Father,  and  that  His  purpose  in  creating  him  was  to 
train  him  into  a  participation  of  His  own  righteousness  and 
blessedness — such  a  man  would  possess  true  faith,  the  faith 
which  Jesus  Himself  had,  and  such  a  man  would  truly 
"  have  the  Son  "  in  the  spiritual  meaning  of  the  text,  "  He 
that  hath  the  Son  hath  life."  "  Christ  in  you  the  hope  of 
glory  "  is,  I  believe,  the  universal  condition  of  humanity, 
having  the  same  meaning  as  the  word  "  God  created  man  in 
His  own  image."  Man  has  this  image,  this  indwelling 
spirit  in  him,  which  is  really  the  spirit  of  faith,  and  which 
testifies  within  him  that  he  is  not  his  own ;  that  as  he  is 
neither  his  own  creator  nor  sustainer,  so  he  cannot  be  his 
own  end,  or  object,  or  portion ;  that  he  must  be  a  dependent 
receiver,  and  that  the  giver  from  whom  he  receives  must 
be  love — a  loving  Father — as  otherwise  His  gifts  could 
never  satisfy  the  heart,  and  His  commandments  could  never 
be  obeyed.     Faith  is  the  law  of  spiritual  gravitation,  the 

2  E 


434  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1870. 

spiritual  nexus  of  the  universe,  the  open  mouth  whereby 
the  spiritual  creation  receives  out  of  God.  Jesus  is  the  first 
truster,  and  all  our  belief  in  Him  is  to  help  us  to  enter  into 
His  trust,  the  trust  which  He  has  in  the  Father.  I  agree 
with  you  in  your  strong  protest  against  the  idea  of  satis- 
faction to  divine  justice.  I  believe,  moreover,  that  man 
could  never  afford  to  want  any  punishment  that  God  could 
inflict  upon  him,  and  that  it  is  a  universal  and  unchange- 
able law  of  the  universe  that  God  afflicteth  not  willingly, 
but  for  our  profit,  that  we  may  be  partakers  of  His  holi- 
ness. The  man  who  really  believes  this  is  put  right — he 
is  ready  for  anything  that  comes.  If  you  know  the  Gorgias 
of  Plato,  you  will  understand  me  when  I  say  that  I 
learned  the  meaning  of  justification  by  faith  from  that 
dialogue,  before  I  saw  it  in  St.  Paul.  I  am  at  present 
engaged  in  writing  a  few  last  words,  which  I  find  great 
difficulty  in  doing  to  my  own  satisfaction.  When  it  is  done 
I  shall  beg  your  acceptance  of  a  copy.  It  will  be  a  very 
heterogeneous  miscellany,  I  believe.  .  .  . 

244.    TO  THE  REV.  JOHN  YOUNG.1 

Feb.  1870,  answered  5th  Feb. 
Dear  Sir, — I  am  not  able  to  write  a  letter  such  as 
ought  to  be  written  in  answer  to  yours.  I  can  only  say 
that  I  do  not  believe  that  thinking  people  will  be  helped 
to  take  hold  of  the  doctrine  of  Universal  Salvation  by  mere 
texts.  I  believe  that  the  assurance  that  the  purpose  of 
God  in  creating  man  was  the  loving,  righteous,  fatherly 
purpose  of  educating  him  into  His  own  fellowship,  i.e.  a 
participation  in  His  own  righteousness,  is  the  true  basis  of 
such  a  belief.  And  as  the  whole  Bible  seems  to  me  in- 
tended to  give  that  assurance,  I  feel  as  if  I  were  weakening 
the  great  general  effect  by  picking  out  particular  texts. 
1  Tlie  last  letter  written  by  Mr.  Erskine— left  unsigned. 


mt.  Si.  MRS.   GURNEY.  435 

•'  Good  and  upright  is  the  Lord,  therefore  will  He  teach 
sinners  in  the  way,"  was,  I  think,  the  first  text  that  led 
me  to  the  desired  conclusion,  and  after  that  the  107th 
Psalm;  and  in  the  New  Testament,  the  end  of  the  oth 
chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Komans,  and  also  the  end  of 
the  11th  chapter.  Some  of  the  chapters  of  Jeremiah,  from 
the  29th  to  the  33d,  contain  the  same  meaning  very 
strongly, — also  the  26th  chapter  of  Leviticus.  The  pur- 
pose of  all  punishment  being  education  is  surely  the  true 
argument, — that  purpose,  one  may  say,  being  necessary  to 
the  very  existence  of  love  and  of  righteousness. 


XL— DOCTRINE  OF  THE  FATHER  AND  THE  SON. 

245.  TO  MRS.  GURNEY. 

41  Charlotte  Square,  Good  Friday  1S62. 
Dear  Mrs.  Gurney,  .  .  .  — It  is  indeed  wonderful ! 
If  there  is  no  goodness  but  what  is  in  God,  and  flows  out 
from  God,  then  there  must  be  in  Him  two  kinds  of  good- 
ness,— first,  the  goodness  of  giving  and  blessing  and 
ruling ;  and  second,  the  goodness  of  receiving  and  trusting 
and  obeying — the  Father  and  the  Son — active  and  passive 
goodness,  united  in  one  Spirit.  Jesus  says,  "  I  do  nothing 
of  myself.  Whatsoever  the  Father  saith  unto  me,  that  I 
do.  My  Father  is  greater  than  I,  and  yet  I  and  my 
Father  are  one."  There  are  thus,  as  it  were,  two  hemi- 
spheres in  God,  upper  and  under,  distinct  personalities. 
The  unity  of  God  is  not  singleness— n^js__compleieiieBSL4. 
and^vouklnoTa  God  of  love,  livihgTrom  eternity  without 
an  object,  without  a  recipient  of  His  love,  be  incomplete  1 
Is  not  the  thought  of  such  a  thing  most  oppressive  and 


436  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSK1NE.  1862. 

overwhelming  to  the  mind  ]  And  the  moral  creation  is 
appended  to  the  lower  hemisphere,  united  to  the  Son,  as 
He  prays  "  that  they  all  may  be  one,  as  Thou,  Father,  art 
in  me — I  in  them  and  Thou  in  me,  that  they  may  be 
made  perfect  in  one,"  etc.  This  I  find  helpful  towards  the 
knowledge  of  God.  Contemplating  this  idea  of  God,  I  see 
and  feel  that  love  is  His  nature,  giving  and  receiving  sym- 
pathy in  communion ;  no  doctrine  can  ever  have  been 
taught  by  God  except  to  help  us  nearer  Himself,  not 
that  we  should  simply  submit  our  reason  to  it. — Dear 
friend,  yours  affectionately,  T.  Erskine. 

246.    TO  MRS.  GURNEY. 

41  Chaklotte  Square,  14$.  May  18G2. 
Dear  Mrs.  Gurney,  .  .  .  — I  am  not  sure,  from  your 
notice  of  it,  whether  you  really  appreciated  what  I  said  about 
the  doctrine  of  the  Father  and  the  Son.  I  think  that  in 
general,  even  where  it  is  considered  as  capable  of  some  ex- 
planation, the  explanation  offered  is  simply  its  relation  to 
man's  redemption,  and  yet  I  am  satisfied  that  its  true  ex- 
planation must  be  helpful  in  knowing  God  Himself.  Now 
this  help  seems  to  me  largely  given  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
Father  and  the  Son.  When  we  contemplate  God  before 
creation — if  we  can  realise  such  a  state  in  our  imaginations 

we  are  sometimes  overwhelmed  and  lost  in  the  sense  of  a 

dreary  depressing  solitude.  From  everlasting  God  had  been, 
and  God  is  love.  His  life  consists  in  love,  yet  whom  had 
He  to  love  *?  The  idea  of  love  in  action  excludes  the  idea 
of  singleness ;  oneness  then  is  not  singleness — oneness  is 
completeness.  Then  in  this  completeness  there  cannot  be 
absolute  equality ;  order  always  supposes  inequality, — "  My 
Father  is  greater  than  I."  There  is  the  order  of  giving  and 
receiving,  governing  and  obeying,  blessing  and  trusting. 
This  lower  hemisphere  is  the  Son,  continually  receiving  and 


7ET.  73- 


MRS.   GURNEY.  437 


returning  the  Father's  love,  giving  a  sympathising  response 
to  every  thought  and  feeling  in  the  Father's  mind.  It  is  a 
manifestation  of  love,  and  the  moral  creation  is  appended  to 
the  lower  hemisphere  that  it  may  partake  in  the  spirit  of 
the  Son — "  I  in  them,  and  Thou  in  me,  that  they  may  be 
made  perfect  in  one."  Faith  implies  recipiency  ;  the  Son's 
faith  receives  out  of  the  Father,  and  man  is  created  in  the 
Son  that  he  may  receive  of  the  divine  nature  and  the 
eternal  life.  Thus  the  creation  of  man  necessarily  sup- 
poses the  purpose  of  Incarnation,  the  recipiency  of  the 
divine  nature  by  flesh,  the  difference  between  the  Head 
and  the  members  being  this,  that  the  Head  is  God  assuming 
flesh — men  are  flesh  receiving  God. 

We  read  the  sermons  on  your  brother-in-law  with  ex- 
ceeding interest.  He  must  have  been  a  noble-hearted  man 
and  a  true.  I  regret  in  reading  them  that  I  had  not 
endeavoured  to  become  intimate  with  him,  that  I  might 
have  imbibed  some  of  his  spirit.  I  feel  that  your  husband 
must  have  loved  him  and  honoured  him,  and  must  have 
felt  his  human  existence  much  impoverished  by  his 
removal.  I  myself  had  a  most  noble-hearted  brother, 
whom  I  loved  and  honoured  and  trusted  entirely,  and 
even  now  the  thought  of  him  helps  me  to  realise  my  rela- 
tion to  the  great  Elder  Brother,  the  loving  Head  of  men, 
who  is  in  each  one  of  us  as  the  head  of  the  natural  body 
is  present  by  the  nervous  system  in  every  member  of  the 
body.  He  is  closer  to  us  than  aught  else,  and  is  con- 
tinually seeking  to  train  us  into  a  perfect  sympathy  witli 
Himself,  sympathy  with  the  Father  and  the  Son  in  every 
thought  and  feeling.  This  is  the  eternal  life;  it  is  a  par- 
ticipation in  God's  own  will,  and  God's  will  is  His  life. 
Mrs.  Paterson  has  been  unusually  ill  lately,  and  Ave  do  not 
feel  that  she  is  yet  round  the  corner. 

I  beg  my  very  kind  regards  to  your  husband  and  also 


•138  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1863. 

to  Mrs.  Cowper,  besides  great  love  to  your  mother  from  us 
all. — Ever  affectionately  yours,  T.  Erskine. 

247.    TO  MRS.  BATTEN  AND  MRS.  RUSSELL  GURNEY. 

13  Charlotte  Square,  23d  Feb.  1863. 

Beloved  Friends,  Mother  and  Daughter, — Any  word 
from  you  is  always  most  welcome  and  refreshing,  bringing 
intimations  of  the  eternal  sympathy  which  is  also  the 
eternal  harmony.  I  am  thankful  to  find  that  you  have  found, 
in  one  important  matter,  that  oneness — I  mean,  that  you 
have  found  that  in  very  deed  the  consent  of  your  will  to 
the  will  of  God,  in  opposition  to  all  self-seeking,  is  the 
true  order  and  the  true  blessedness.  Milton  speaks  of 
concent  as  arising  out  of  consent,  the  c  marking  the  musical 
harmony,  the  s  the  harmony  of  feeling.  The  Father  and 
the  Son  dwelling  in  the  sympathy  of  one  Spirit  are  the 
Fountain  of  all  love,  and  all  goodness,  and  all  blessedness. 
Wherever  we  see  good,  we  see  the  presence  of  God,  for 
there  is  no  other  good.  It  may  be  unacknowledged  by  the 
creatures  in  whom  it  appears ;  but  it  is  always  acknowledged 
at  the  Fountainhead  by  Him  who  is  the  beginning  of  the 
creation  of  God,  and  in  whom  all  things  consist.  The 
Eternal  Receiver  lovingly  and  thankfully  acknowledges  the 
Eternal  Giver  as  His  Father  and  our  Father,  as  His  God 
and  our  God ;  and  His  continual  work  is  to  produce  this 
loving  and  thankful  receiving  in  the  whole  creation,  and 
when  this  is  accomplished  then  will  come  forth  the  full 
burst  of  song,  which  the  ear  of  the  Psalmist  heard,  though 
far  off,  and  which  our  ears  will  one  day  hear  as  the  actual 
voice  of  the  Universe.1 

My  sister  is  better,  and  in  the  drawing-room ;   but  she 

1  See  also  "The  Divine  Son,"  being  the  second  chapter  in  The  Spiritual 
Order,  pp.  28-46  (2d  edit.) 


/ET.  74.       JJ/A'S.  BATTEN  AND  MRS.  R.   GURNEY.  439 

does  not  expect  to  have  her  accustomed  capabilities  until 
she  can  drive  out,  which  she  hopes  soon  to  do,  but  which 
cannot  be  tried  Avithout  a  certain  risk.  I  hope  if  we  are 
spared  till  summer  that  we  shall  have  the  great  pleasure  of 
seeing  you  both  at  Linlathen.  These  annual  meetings 
must  soon  come  to  an  end  in  the  course  of  nature,  but  the 
eternal  meeting  never  ends.  My  sister  Davie  is  very  well 
for  her — enjoying  her  friends,  young  and  old  as  always. 
We  all  three  unite  in  truest  love  to  you  both.  Farewell. — 
With  my  and  our  best  regards  to  Mr.  Gurney,  ever 
affectionately  yours,  T.  Erskine. 


440  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

Letters  of  Sympathy  and  Consolation. 

On  being  informed  by  Mr.  F.  Russell  of  Mr.  Erskine's 
visit  to  him  at  the  time  of  his  wife's  death,  Mr.  A.  J.  Scott 
wrote,  "  It  was  with  no  small  pleasure  I  thought  of  Erskine 
being  with  you  at  such  a  time,  the  man  who,  of  all  I  ever 
knew,  renders  humanity  and  Christianity  most  completely 
into  the  form  of  sympathy."1  Vinet  was  in  the  habit  of 
referring  to  a  slight  but  not  insignificant  expression  of 
the  humanity  of  this  sympathy.  He  and  Mr.  Erskine  were 
spending  an  evening  in  the  house  of  a  common  friend. 
Some  moths  flickered  around  the  lights,  till  one  touched 
them  and  was  half  burned.  Mr.  Erskine  hastened  to 
abridge  its  sufferings  by  seizing  it  and  plunging  it  into  the 
flame.  "  Ceci  etait  tout  ordinaire,  mais  c'etait  l'expression 
de  compassion,  de  souffrance  intime,  presque  de  sympathie, 
la  delicatesse  avec  laquelle  il  avait  saisi  la  pauvre  bete, 
qui  avait  profondement  touche'  Vinet."2  "Mr.  Erskine," 
Dr.  Campbell  tells  us,  "  used  to  fix  a  child's  eye  by  a  look 
of  kindness  when  we  walked  among  the  happy  little  groups 
in  the  Tuileries,  and  when  he  elicited  a  responsive  smile  he 
would  say,  '  That  child's  spirit  and  mine  have  communion.'"3 
His  simple  look  of  sympathy  in  one  instance  exercised  quite 

1  Extract  from  letter  dated  Manchester,  July  19,  1865. 

2  Preface  to  "  La  Pleine  Gratuite  du  Pardon,"  p.  21. 
s  Memorials,  vol.  ii.  p.  245. 


LETTERS  OF  SYMPATHY.  441 

a  singular  influence.  The  story  was  told  him  of  one  living 
at  the  time  in  the  same  hotel  with  him  in  Switzerland,  upon 
whom  had  just  been  flung  such  a  burden  of  sorrow  as 
inflicted  intense  mental  agony.  Just  as  Mr.  Erskine  had 
taken  in  the  whole  tale  of  grief,  the  sufferer  entered  the 
room.  They  did  not  know  each  other,  were  not  introduced, 
but  such  Avas  the  effect  of  the  look  of  sympathy  that  Mr. 
Erskine  bent  upon  him  that  the  sufferer  threw  himself  into 
his  arms  and  laid  his  head  upon  his  shoulder,  weeping.  It 
was  his  large  capacity  for  sympathy  which  gave  him  such 
power  as  a  consoler.  He  had,  besides,  a  gospel  of  consola- 
tion to  impart  which  he  lost  no  opportunity  to  apply  to 
the  hearts  of  all,  whatever  the  nature  and  source  of  their 
suffering, — a  gospel  which  embodied  itself  in  one  of  his 
favourite  hymns,  a  copy  of  which  he  was  in  the  habit  of 
sending  to  friends  : — 

I  say  to  thee,  do  thou  repeat 

To  the  first  man  thou  mayest  meet 

In  lane,  highway,  or  open  street, 

That  he  and  we  and  all  men  move 

Under  a  canopy  of  love, 

As  broad  as  the  blue  sky  above. 

And  ere  thou  leave  him  say  thou  this 
Yet  one  word  more — they  only  miss 
The  winning  of  that  final  bliss 

Who  will  not  count  it  true  that  love, 
Blessing,  not  cursing,  rules  above, 
And  that  in  it  we  live  and  move. 

And  one  thing  farther  make  him  know. 
That  to  believe  these  things  are  so 
This  firm  faith  never  to  forego, 

Despite  of  all  that  seems  at  strife 
With  blessing,  all  with  curses  rife, 
That  this  is  blessing,  this  is  life. 


442  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1850. 


248.    TO  MISS  PRISCILLA    MAURICE.1 

LlNLATHEK,  2lst  Oct.  1850. 

Dear  Friend, — I  suppose  that  you  are  fast  journeying 
to  your  rest,  and  I  wish  once  again,  before  you  leave  this 
scene  of  things,  to  send  you  a  word  of  sympathy.  I  have 
been  refreshed  and  quickened  by  reading  your  book  on 
the  duties  and  consolations  of  the  sick,  and  I  have  felt 
thankful  on  your  behalf  that  in  such  circumstances  as  yours 
you  have  been  sustained  to  write  it.  It  is  a  loving  legacy 
to  leave  to  your  brethren.  What  a  full  and  pregnant 
thing  life  is,  when  God  is  known  ;  and  what  a  weary  empti- 
ness it  is  without  Him  !  The  gift  of  existence  would  be 
indeed  an  intolerable  burden  if  one  did  not  believe  fully 
that  He  who  is  the  Fountain  of  existence  is  able  to  give 
it  a  true  and  unfailing  interest.  Without  that  faith  what 
reflecting  spirit  could  join  in  the  thanksgiving  for  "  crea- 
tion and  preservation'"?  Dear  friend,  you  can  thank 
God  for  creation,  for  it  has  been  to  you  an  introduction 
into  His  own  eternal  fulness.  I  am  a  sinner,  yet  I  feel 
as  if  my  God  had  given  me  a  claim  on  Him,  a  deep  undeni- 
able claim  on  Him,  by  drawing  me  out  of  the  rest  of 
nothingness  into  this  conscious  existence,  this  conscious- 
ness of  emptiness,  this  capacity  of  horror  from  this 
emptiness  unfilled.  But  all  this  emptiness  is  another 
name  for  the  capacity  of  being  filled, — filled,  dear  friend, 
with  God.  The  river  of  God  is  full  of  water,  and  He  will 
moisten  and  fill  these  parched  hearts  of  ours  out  of  the 
river  of  His  own  Life.  Whatever  fears,  whatever  doubts, 
may  stir  within  us,  of  weariness  and  withering,  let  us  be 
ready  with  our  answer  :  Christ  in  me,  the  hope,  the  eternal 

1  Sister  of  the  Rev.  F.  D.  Maurice,  and  authoress  of  the  Trials  and 
Blessings  of  Sickness. 


&t.  67.  MRS.  SCHWABE.  44?, 

hope,  of  satisfying  joy.  The  untiring  state  of  a  spirit  is 
love  and  duty,  and  these  we  have  in  the  Father  and  the 
Son.  "  Thou  art  my  hiding-place."  "  Because  I  live,  ye 
shall  live  also."     Farewell. — Ever  affectionately  yours, 

T.  Erskine. 

Mr.  Erskine  had  no  personal  acquaintance  with  Richard 
Cobden.  He  knew  him  only  as  a  public  man,  and  as  a 
friend  of  Mrs.  Schwabe.  But  the  sad  and  sudden  death  of 
Mr.  Cobden' s  only  son  opened  the  floodgates  of  a  sympathy 
which  poured  itself  out  in  this  touching  letter  : — 

249.    TO  MRS.  SCHWABE. 

122  George  Street,  Edinburgh, 
27th  April  1856. 

Dear  Friend, — I  have  just  heard  of  your  return  to 
England,  and  of  the  melancholy  event  which  has  occasioned 
it.  It  seems  to  be  your  vocation  to  weep  with  those  that 
weep,  to  be  brought  into  connection  with  the  suffering  and 
the  sorrowful,  that  you  may  give  them  that  comfort  which 
true  sympathy  cannot  fail  to  supply.  We  grieve  for  the 
Cobdens, — an  only  son,  a  first-born,  so  suddenly  snatched 
away  without  the  satisfaction  of  watching  over  him  and 
meeting  his  last  looks.  I  don't  wonder  at  their  desire  to 
see  you,  as  the  friend  who  had  last  seen  him,  and  who 
could  repeat  to  them  some  of  his  words,  and  perhaps  tell 
them  things  indicating  a  noble  and  loving  nature  in  him 
which  promised  to  develop  itself  in  much  that  was  great 
and  good.  You  may  tell  them  these  things,  and  enter  into 
their  sorrow  with  a  true  human  and  maternal  heart.  And 
yet  I  feel  that  the  best  human  sympathy  really  fails  in  its 
object  if  it  does  not  help  the  mourner  to  rise  to  a  living 
fountain  of  sympathising  love  at  the  top  and  centre  of  all 
things,  on  which  he  may  depend  with  absolute  confidence, 


444  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1856. 

not  only  for  real  sympathy,  but  also  for  doing  what  is  best, 
and  wisest,  and  kindest.     And  does  not  that  parental  rela- 
tion which  has  given  your  poor  friends  so  much  joy,  and 
is  now  giving  them  so  much  sorrow — does  not  that  mys- 
terious relation  of  love  conduct  us  up  to  the  same  top  and 
centre  of  the  Universe,  revealing  to  us  that  that  central 
fountain  and  regulator  is  a  father's  and  mother's  heart? 
If  this  be  not  so,  we  are  all  orphans,  and  if  this  be  so,  we 
have  all  a  Father  who  is  training  us,  by  a  way  that  His 
wisdom  sees  best,  into  a  participation  in  His  own  character, 
His   own  love  and  truth  and  righteousness,  and  feeling 
with  us  in  all  the  duties  and  difficulties  and  sorrows  which 
that  discipline  requires.     The  idea  of  a  sorrowing   God 
shocks  the  minds  of  many.     It  does  not  shock  mine  ;  I 
cannot   conceive   love   being   without    sorrow.     I    cannot 
believe  that  man  can  give  me  a  sympathy  which  God  does 
not  give  me ;    I  cannot  believe  that  man  can  give  me  a 
sympathy  which  does  not  flow  into  him  from  God ;  and  if 
any  one  should  say  to  me,  Why  does  an  omnipotent  God 
bring  creatures  into  existence  who  grieve  themselves  and 
cause  grief  to  Him  %  I  answer,  God,  in  making  men,  made 
creatures  whom  He  desired  to  be  good ;  goodness  means 
choosing  to  be  good ;    they  cannot    be  made  good,  they 
must  choose  it,  and  omnipotence  cannot  do  that  without 
unmaking  the   man;   wise   and  loving  training  must   do 
it.     God  desires  the  joy  of  seeing  His  creatures  choose  to 
be  good,  and  the  capacity  of  choosing  to  be  good  implies 
the  capacity  of  refusing  to  be  good,  and  thus  the  possi- 
bility of  such  a  joy  is  always  accompanied  with  the  risk 
of  a  great  sorrow,  which  sorrow,  I  believe,   God  knows 
and  feels.     Your  friends  do  not  sorrow  as  those  without 
hope.     They  hope  to  see  their  child  again,  no  longer  a 
child,  but  what  his  childhood   promised.     He  is  still  in 
God's  school,  under  .his  Father's  eye  and  training;    they 


;et.  67.  MRS.  SCHWAB E.  445 

also  themselves  are  in  God's  school,  in  another  room  from 
their  boy,  but  under  the  same  eye,  the  same  guidance,  as 
he  and  we  all  are.  And  it  seems  to  me  that  we  might 
have  a  real  communion  with  all  the  scholars  in  that  great 
school,  Avhether  here  or  elsewhere,  if  we  were  to  cultivate 
as  we  might  our  relation  with  our  heavenly  Teacher  and 
Father.  We  are  members  one  of  another ;  we  belong  to 
one  great  whole ;  we  can  never  sever  ourselves  from  them, 
do  what  we  will ;  but  our  communion  would  be  of  the 
right  and  blessed  kind  were  we  to  make  it  our  continual 
business  to  enter  into  the  mind  and  purpose  of  God  con- 
cerning us  and  all  men,  and  so  to  become  conscious  and 
willing  fellow-workers  with  Him  in  working  out  that  great 
salvation  which  consists  in  the  spiritual  rightness  of  all 
humanity.  I  need  not  say  to  you  that  this  is  the  view 
which  Christianity  gives  of  God ;  it  sets  Jesus  Christ  before 
us  sympathising  with  and  participating  in  every  form  of 
human  suffering  in  order  that  He  might  draw  men  up  to 
love  and  righteousness ;  and  through  His  whole  course  He 
tells  us  that  it  was  as  the  Kevealer  of  the  Father  that  He 
appeared  on  earth ;  thus  signifying  that  it  was  by  no  act 
of  omnipotence  that  man  was  to  be  redeemed  from  the 
power  of  sin,  which  is  in  fact  from  the  power  of  selfishness, 
but  by  a  true  sympathy,  a  true  holy  love.  God  bearing 
man's  burden  with  him,  God,  as  it  were,  sacrificing  Himself 
that  man  might  learn  to  sacrifice  himself, — this  is  the 
sympathy  which  can  alone  heal  the  broken  heart  with  true 
healing.  And  what  a  teaching  there  is  in  sorrow  !  How 
it  elevates  and  enriches  the  spirit !  The  Cobdens  did 
not  desire  your  presence  merely  because  you  were  the  last 
friend  who  had  seen  their  son ;  they  desired  to  see  you 
because  they  knew  that  you  had  yourself  sorrowed,  that 
the  soil  of  your  heart  had  been  deepened  and  fertilised  by 
having  the  ploughshare  of  sorrow  passing  through  it.     The 


446  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1856. 

veriest  triflers  learn  wisdom  through  sorrow;  as  I  look 
back  on  my  own  life  I  find  all  the  most  remarkable  epochs 
marked  by  the  deathbeds  of  those  whom  I  loved.  These 
were  fresh  starting-points  for  the  character.  This  must  be 
a  common  experience.  Then  again,  how  much  has  Mr. 
Cobden's  sorrow  changed  my  whole  feeling  towards  him. 
I  before  thought  of  him  only  as  a  public  man ;  I  admired 
his  talent  and  his  public  spirit,  and  I  knew  him  as  the 
holder  of  certain  views  of  social  policy,  with  some  of  which 
I  agreed,  and  with  some  I  disagreed.  But  now  I  feel 
towards  him  as  a  suffering  man,  as  a  bereaved  father,  and 
as  an  affectionate  husband,  as  one  opening  his  heart  to 
human  sympathy.  Thus  sorrow  breaks  down  the  barriers 
and  removes  the  boundaries  which  separate  us  from  each 
other.  And  now,  dear  friend,  to  carry  this  thought  still 
further,  do  you  not  think  that,  whilst  we  regard  God  as  a 
great  sovereign,  just  and  generous  it  may  be,  but  out  of 
the  reach  of  our  joys  and  sorrows,  not  needing  our  love, 
but  only  requiring  it  as  a  duty,  we  may  talk  of  loving  Him, 
but  it  is  only  talk  %  we  cannot  love  Him  till  we  know  that 
in  His  heart  there  dwells  a  true  humanity,  a  capacity  of 
sorrow,  an  actual  suffering  under  all  the  sin  and  sorrow  of 
His  creatures,  a  need  of  our  love  and  of  our  sympathy, 
until  we  see  him  manifested  in  the  Man  who  wept  at  the 
grave  of  Lazarus,  who  wept  over  Jerusalem,  and  drank  the 
cup  of  human  suffering  even  to  its  dregs.  As  I  was  writ- 
ing, Miss came  in  and  told  me  she  had  just  fallen  in 

with  an  account  of  Luther's  feelings  when  he  lost  his  little 
daughter  Madeleine.1     It  struck  me  that  it  might  be  sooth- 
ing to  your  friends  to  read  it  and  to  mix  their  sorrow  with 
that  of  the  stout  but  tender-hearted  Reformer. 
1  Michelet's  Life  of Luther,  pp.  298-9. 


jet.  67.  MRS.  MACNABB.     ■  447 

250.    TO  F.  RUSSELL,  ESQ.1 

LlNLATHEN,  DUNDEE,  25<A  Jllhj  1S55. 

My  dear  Friend, — I  must  not  delay  to  answer  your 
most  touching  letter.  You  seem  to  find  it  good  to  be 
afflicted,  and  as  I  believe  the  only  real  good  consists  in  the 
discovery  of  an  unseen  spiritual  portion  in  the  love  of  God, 
so  I  believe  that  discovery  is  generally  made  through  the 
rent  veil  of  the  flesh  of  visible  and  temporal  hopes  and 
possessions.  And  when  the  spirit  does  really  meet  its 
Father,  and  find  Him  to  be  the  infinite  loving  One,  giving 
us  His  love,  and  asking  our  loving  confidence,  then  it 
understands  that  word  of  the  Man  of  Sorrows,  "  Blessed  are 
they  that  mourn,  for  they  shall  be  comforted."  There  is 
no  brotherhood  like  the  brotherhood  of  sorrow.  The  true 
purpose  of  sorrow  is  to  reveal  a  need  and  the  Supplier  of 
all  need  :  and  its  consolation,  as  you  say,  does  not  consist 
in  teaching  us  to  undervalue  the  blessings  that  have  been 
removed,  but  by  showing  us  that  what  constituted  their 
essence,  their  true  value,  is  not  and  cannot  be  taken  from 
us . — for  all  live,  %n  Him.  Dear  friend,  the  peace  of  God 
be  with  you ;  and  may  He  provide  good  guidance  and  good 
protection  to  your  little  ones.  I  am  glad  that  I  have 
seen  her — I  never  could  forget  her — that  delicacy  of  nature 
and  texture  that  one  could  weep  at.  But  all  live  in  Him. 
— Ever  affectionately  yours,  T.  Erskine. 

251.    TO  MRS.  MACNABB.2 

Feb.  1SG0. 

Dear  Friend, — I  feel  a  desire  to  write  to  you,  and  yet 

it  is  chiefly  to  say  to  you  that  I  feel  for  you,  and  in  some 

measure  feel  with   you,   under  this   heavy  blow.  ...  A 

bond   has   been  broken  which  I   believe  has    had  more 

1  On  being  informed  of  the  death  of  Mr.  R.'s  wife. 
-  On  the  death  of  her  husband. 


443  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1862. 

tenderness  in  it  than  is  generally  found  in  similar  bonds, 

but  there  is  a  bond  remaining  which  our  Lord  indicates 

when  He   says,    "  I   in    you,   and    you  in  ,me," — a  bond 

uniting  us  to  God  and  also  to  each  other,  which  is  not  to 

be  broken,  belonging  as  it  does  to  the  Divine  nature,  being 

in  truth  Christ  Himself,  resting  in  which  we  may  in  all 

circumstances  rejoice  with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory. 

This  is  the  fourth  heavy  sorrow  under  which  I  have  known 

you,  and  it  is  the  heaviest  of  them  all.     I  always  loved  your 

husband  and  admired  his  purity  and  tenderness,  and  the 

delicate  affection  of  his  nature,  and  I  in  some  measure  felt 

what  he  was  as  a  husband  and  a  father  and  a  friend.    I  felt 

how  deep  and  unselfish  an  interest  he  took  in  all  with  whom 

he  was  connected.     I  was  much  impressed  with  that  feature 

of  his  character  when  I  last  saw  him  in  Barry's  Hotel,  and  I 

know  the  hold  that  such  a  quality  takes  of  the  hearts  of 

those  who  are  daily  under  its  influence.     When  I  saw  him 

at  that  time  I  had  the  feeling  that  he  was  not  well,  that  the 

oift  which  you  all  had  in  him  was  precarious  and  anxious. 

But  then,  in  whose  hand  was  he  1  in  whose  hand  are  you 

all  1     This  is  the  everlasting  consolation,  dear  friend.     You 

would  feel  the  mercy  of  James  being  in  Europe,  and  being 

able  to  soothe  the  last  hours  of  his  father,  and  of  Flora 

being  also  back  in  time.     Farewell ;  the  peace  of  God  be 

with  you  all. — Ever  affectionately  yours, 

T.  Erskine. 

252.    TO  THE  REV.  CHARLES  MONEY. 

Lini.athen,  Dundee,  11th  June  1SC2. 
Dear  Friend, — I  have  heard  from  Mrs.  Cameron  that 
you  are  in  very  deep  sorrow,  that  the  Lord  has  laid  His 
hand  heavily  on  you.  But  it  is  His  hand,  our  Father's 
hand,  who  afflicteth  not  willingly,  but  for  our  profit,  that 
we  may  be  partakers  of  His  holiness.     I  have  this  morning 


jet.  73.  REV.   CHARLES  MONEY.  449 

been  reading  the  2  2d  Psalm,  the  cry  of  Him  who  was 
afflicted  more  than  any  man,  and  He  seems  to  seek  and 
find  a  rest  for  His  spirit,  not  in  anything  which  could  dis- 
tinguish Him  from  any  child  of  Adam,  but  in  that  which 
was  common  to  Him  with  them  all.  '  Thou  art  He  that 
took  me  out  of  my  mother's  womb.  I  belong  to  Thee,  I  have 
none  to  look  to  but  Thee.  I  am  Thine,  oh  save  me.  There 
is  no  created  thing  that  can  help  me,  it  must  be  Thyself. 
Thou  hast  made  me  for  Thyself,  and  it  is  Thyself  only  that 
can  help  me  or  satisfy  me.'  The  universal  temptation  is 
to  give  to  God's  gifts  the  place  which  belongs  to  God  Him- 
self, so  that  we  seek  our  satisfaction  in  them  and  not  in 
Himself;  and  yet  Ave  can  only  have  the  eternal  life  in  so 
far  as  we  know  Him  and  feel  Him  to  be  our  portion,  and 
thus  enter  into  sympathy  with  Him  and  with  His  loving 
purpose  towards  ourselves  and  all  others.  I  believe  that 
we  cannot  truly  and  rightly  love  God's  gifts  until  we  know 
the  Giver  and  can  discern  Him  in  His  gifts.  I  know  well 
that  it  cannot  be  a  full  consolation  to  you  to  believe,  and 
even  to  experience,  that  you  are  to  be  brought  nearer  to 
God  by  this  stroke.  God  gave  you  in  her  an  object  whom 
you  knew  and  loved  as  an  individual.  He  intended  that 
you  should  so  love  her,  and  He  knew  that  if,  in  taking  her, 
He  had  said, '  I  will  give  you  something  better,'  He  would 
have  been  in  some  sort  mocking  your  sorrow.  You  would 
have  said,  'I  loved  herself;  anything,  even  though  better, 
is  not  what  can  satisfy  the  affection  which  Thou  hast  given 
me  for  her.'  I  believe  that  this  is  often  overlooked.  God 
loves  us  as  individuals,  and  He  intends  that  we  should  love 
and  appreciate  others  as  individuals.  Observe  the  endless 
variety  of  human  characters.  He  knows  the  idiosyncrasy 
of  each  one,  and  He  desires  both  to  receive  sympathy  from 
each  one  according  to  that  idiosyncrasy,  and  to  give  this 
to  each  one  in  the  same  way.     "  How  precious  are  Thy 

2  F 


450  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1862. 

thoughts  unto  me,  0  God  !  and  how  great  is  the  sum  of 
them  !"     He  has  counted  the  hairs  of  our  heads.     I  believe 
that  nothing  is  lost  but  evil,  and  that  there  is  a  special 
purpose  of  wise  love  in  all  God's  gifts  to  us,  therefore  she 
is  not  lost,  but  laid  up  by  God  for  Him  and  for  you.    I  be- 
lieve that  God  is  love,  and  that  love  demands  sympathy. 
Benevolence  may  be  satisfied  with  a  general  well-being  in 
its  objects,  but  this  does  not  satisfy  love.     Love  is  not 
satisfied  with  submission ;  it  requires  that  we  should  enter 
into  its  purposes.    Our  Lord's  prayer  for  us  is,  "  I  in  them, 
and  Thou  in  me,  that  they  may  be  made  perfect  in  one." 
Beloved  Charles,  this  is  our  high  vocation,  and  we  are  to  be 
trained  for  it  by  entering  into  the  mind  of  God  in  all  His 
appointments.     I  thank  God  for  all  the  affection  which  I 
have  experienced  from  my  fellow -creatures.     I  endeavour 
to  receive  it  and  remember  it  as  a  pledge  of  His  love,  His 
love  to  me,  His  love  to  each  individual.     He  has  taught 
me  by  it  that  He  has  made  me  for  sympathy,  to  find  my 
happiness  in  sympathy,  and  has  thus  drawn  me  upward 
to  seek  His  own  sympathy,  as  that  which  harmonises  and 
sanctifies  all  lower  sympathies.    I  often  look  back  to  Venice, 
and  to  the  love  which  I  met  there,  and  thank  God  for  it. 
I  think  of  your  loving  and  beloved  mother,  and  dear  Mary, 
and  all  the  rest,  and  the  excellent  and  venerable  father.    You 
were  highly  privileged  in  being  born  into  a  house  of  love, 
stamping  on  your  young  minds  the  image  of  our  Father's 
house  above,  where  ever  remain  the  spiritual  and  eternal 
types  of  all  human  affections.     Let  us  then  set  our  affec- 
tions on  things  above,  on  that  which  is  really  heavenly, 
even  in  the  things  Avhich  are  on  earth, — for  when  we  see 
and  love  God  in  His  gifts,  our  affections  are  really  set  on 
things  above,  whilst  Ave  love  things  which  are  on  earth. 
Give  my  best  love  to  your  mother  (and  mine),  and  to  the 
sister  and  the  brothers.  T.  Erskine. 


^t.  73.  JOHN  BROWN,  M.D.  451 


253.    TO  DR.  JOHN  BROWN.1 

3  Charlotte  Square,  7th  Jan.  18G4. 

Yes,  my  clear  friend,  I  am  sure  you  are  nothing  but 
grateful  to  God  for  her  release.  He  had  His  own  wise 
and  loving  purpose  in  detaining  her  here  so  long,  in  that 
state  of  mind  which  He  had  permitted  and  appointed,  and 
she  and  you  will  doubtless  one  day  know  and  rejoice  in  the 
accomplished  effect  of  that  purpose  ;  but  we  can  without 
hesitation  acknowledge  the  mercy  of  her  deliverance. 
AVhat  a  blessed  and  glorious  thing  human  existence  would 
be,  if  we  fully  realised  that  the  infinitely  wise  and  infinitely 
powerful  God  loves  each  one  of  us  with  an  intensity 
infinitely  beyond  what  the  most  fervid  human  spirit  ever 
felt  towards  another,  and  with  a  concentration  as  if  He  had 
none  else  to  think  of!  It  is  to  His  hands  that  you  have 
to  trust  her,  and  it  is  in  His  hands  that  she  now  is,  always 
has  been,  and  always  will  be.  And  this  love  has  brought 
us  into  being,  just  that  we  might  be  taught  to  enter  into 
full  sympathy  with  Him,  receiving  His, — giving  our  own 
— thus  entering  into  the  joy  of  our  Lord.  This  is  the 
hope — the  sure  and  certain  hope — set  before  us  ;  sure  and 
certain,  for  "  the  mountains  shall  depart,  and  the  hills  be 
removed ;  but  my  kindness  shall  not  depart,  neither  shall 
the  covenant  of  my  peace  be  removed,  saith  the  Lord  that 
hath  mercy  on  thee." 

I  always  hope  to  be  a  better  man  by  everything  of  thw 
kind  I  hear — more  free  from  the  bondage  of  corruption, 
selfishness,  and  seen  things ;  and  more  thoroughly  possessed 
with  the  conviction  that  at  every  step  in  the  journey  of  life 
I  have  the  opportunity  given  me  of  being  a  fellow-worker 
with  God  in  working  out  this  great  salvation. — Ever 
affectionately  yours,  T.  Erskine. 

1  On  the  death  of  his  wife. 


452  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSK1NE.  1865. 

Mr.  Erskine  was  not  in  Edinburgh  when  the  carriage  of 
his  friend  Mr.  Constable,  without  any  fault  on  the  part  of 
the  driver,  passed  over  the  body  of  a  child  and  caused  its 
death.  He  heard  of  the  sad  accident  at  Linlathen,  and 
knowing  what  grief  it  would  occasion  to  a  spirit  kindred 
with  his  own,  his  sympathetic  nature  sought  and  found 
relief  in  the  following  note  : — 

254.    TO  MR.  THOMAS  CONSTABLE. 

Linlathen,  23d  June  1865. 

My  dear  Mr.  Constable, — Ever  since  I  heard  of  that 
great  affliction,  I  have  desired  and  intended  to  express  my 
sympathy  with  you  and  Mrs.  Constable.  I  do  not  know 
any  two  persons  who  by  the  tenderness  of  their  natures 
were  more  fitted  to  feel  all  the  agony  of  such  an  occurrence. 
At  the  same  time,  I  know  that  both  of  you  live  under  the 
deep  conviction  that  nothing  can  happen  by  accident — 
that  God  overrules  all  things,  and  has  a  gracious  and  wise 
purpose  in  adapting  them  to  our  spiritual  education. 

I  know  that  you  can  never  escape  from  this  suffering 
except  by  realising  this  loving  purpose  of  your  heavenly 
Father, — and  thus  He,  as  it  were,  lays  it  on  you  as  a 
necessity,  to  have  Him  and  His  loving  purpose  ever 
present  in  your  thoughts  as  your  only  refuge  from  agony. 

If  such  is  the  purpose  of  God  in  permitting  this  tragical 
event  (and  what  other  purpose  with  regard  to  you  two 
can  we  suppose  Him  to  have  had  1),  is  it  not  your  wisdom 
to  make  use  of  it  for  this  purpose,  and  whenever  it  recurs  to 
your  minds,  just  to  accept  it  as  a  direct  call  from  Him  to 
keep  near  to  Him,  to  listen  to  what  He  will  speak,  assured 
that  His  only  desire  is  to  wean  you  from  the  power  of  seen 
things,  and  to  make  you  partakers  of  His  own  eternal 
life? 

Most  assuredly  our  Father  has  had  a  wise  and  loving 


;et.  76.  MR.    CONSTABLE.  453 

purpose  in  this  thing,  towards  the  child  and  the  parents  : — 
the  education  of  the  child  was  to  be  carried  on  better  in 
other  circumstances,  and  the  parents  were  to  learn  that 
God  was  the  only  satisfying  portion  of  the  souls  which  He 
has  made. 

I  suggest  these  things — though  it  is  probable  that  the 
very  same  thought  has  occurred  to  yourselves.  May  the 
consolations  of  God  be  with  you  ! 

It  is  always  pleasant  to  me  to  write  your  name,  and  even 
to  think  of  it. — Yours  affectionately,  T.  Erskine. 


454  KEMLXISCEXCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

Reminiscences  by  Arthur  P.  Stanley,  CD.,  Dean  of  "Westminster. 

You  ask  me  to  give  an  account  of  my  recollections  of 
the  conversations  of  Thomas  Erskine.  I  have  always  felt 
that  whilst  it  was  impossible  to  form  any  conception  of  the 
man  except  from  his  conversations,  it  is  almost  equally 
impossible  to  give  to  one  who  had  no  experience  of  them 
an  adequate  idea  of  what  those  conversations  were. 

Their  peculiarity  consisted,  if  I  may  use  words  which  I 
have  employed  in  another  place,  and  to  which  I  may  refei 
for  my  general  impression  of  his  place  in  the  religious 
history  of  Scotland,1  in  the  exquisite  grace  and  ease  with 
which  he  passed  from  the  earthly  to  the  heavenly,  from  the 
humorous  to  the  serious,  from  the  small  things  of  daily 
affection  or  business  to  the  great  things  of  the  ideal  world. 
It  resembled  the  flight  which  I  have  seen  amongst  the  in- 
numerable sea-fowl  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Bass  Rock, 
in  which  the  wild  birds  dart  with  equal  felicity  out  into 
the  air,  or  feed  upon  the  rocks,  or  dive  and  play  in  the  deep 
waters.  All  three  elements  seem  alike  familiar  to  them. 
So  it  was  with  the  topics  of  conversation  over  which  our 
friend's  mind  glanced  to  and  fro.  I  can  only  profess  to 
give  some  notion  of  his  manner  by  a  succession  of  frag- 
mentary instances. 

The,  Psalms. — He  was,  as  you  are  aware,  in  the  habit  of 

1  Lectures  on  the  History  of  the  Church  of  Scotland. 


B  V  DEAN  STANLE  J '.  455 


reading  in  the  family  devotions  the  Psalms  and  Lessons  as 
they  occur  in  the  calendar  of  the  Church  of  England.  He 
used  to  say,  "  I  greatly  value  the  fixed  order  in  which  this 
calendar  induces  me  to  go  through  the  various  parts  of  the 
Bible  irrespectively  of  my  own  predilection  or  fancies;" 
and  then  he  would  add,  with  a  twinkle  of  his  peculiar 
humour,  "And  this,  I  think,  is  the  one  single  spiritual 
benefit  which  I  have  derived  from  the  Church  of  England." 

On  one  of  these  occasions  the  Psalm  which  he  read  was 
the  1 36th,  where  the  words  occur  :  "  Who  smote  Egypt  and 
their  first-born ;  for  His  mercy  endureth  for  ever.  Who 
overthrew  Pharaoh  and  his  host  in  the  Red  Sea ;  for  His 
mercy  endureth  for  ever."  "  Yes,"  he  said,  in  speaking  of 
it  afterwards,  "  that  has  a  meaning  beyond  what  the 
Psalmist  knew.  There  was  mercy  even  for  Pharaoh  ;  even 
Egypt  and  their  first-born  had  a  place  in  the  mercy  of  God. 
Egypt  and  Assyria  shall  be  blessed  in  the  midst  of  the 
land."  And  then,  with  the  same  thought  darting  forward 
to  the  stern  text  in  the  New  Testament,  "  Jacob  have  J 
loved,  and  Esau  have  I  hated," — "  Yes,"  he  said,  "  but 
Jacob  was  chosen  for  his  special  purpose,  and  Esau,  that 
fine  generous  character,  was  rejected  yet  preserved  for 
another  purpose  not  less  special."  "  The  purpose  of  God' 
for  all  of  us  is  to  make  us  better.  He  can  have  no  other 
intention  for  us." 

He  touched  also  on  the  139th  Psalm,  with  its  description 
of  the  penetrating  omniscience  of  God.  "  That  is  the  Psalm 
Avhich  I  should  wish  to  have  before  me  on  my  death-bed." 

"  How  natural  and  free  are  the  expressions  of  the  Psalms  ! 
They  begin  with  that  great  universal  benediction  on  the 
upright  honest  man,  '  the  noblest  work  of  God,'  and  they 
end  with  the  generous  universal  invocation  of  all  nature 
— '  Let  every  thing  that  hath  breath  ' — every  creature, 
without  limit  or  exception — '  praise  the  Lord.'  " 


4r>G  REMINISCENCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE 

"How  admirable  are  the  90th,  91st,  and  103d  Psalms  ! 
Xever  sorely  were  any  writings  like  these  of  David  !  Do 
tell  me,  you  who  know  history,  has  any  other  king  written 
anything  of  the  kind1?  Listen  to  the  23d  Psalm  !  Listen 
to  the  1st  Psalm!"  And  he  then  repeated  both  these 
from  memory  in  Hebrew. 

" '  There  is  mercy  with  Thee,  for  Thou  renderest  to 
every  man  according  to  his  works.'  That  is  a  very  fine 
passage  ;  and  so  is  this,  '  He  that  belie veth  shall  not  make 
haste.'  There  are  some  who  are  so  fond  in  all  matters  of 
snatching,  that  they  snatch  here  and  there,  '  and  grudge  if 
they  be  not  satisfied.'  " 

Here  are  remarks  on  more  general  subjects. 

"  The  redemption  in  Jesus  Christ  is  shown  to  us  by  His 
own  redemption  of  Himself;  by  His  own  faith  persevering 
to  the  end,  even  to  the  giving  up  of  His  life,  which  is  what 
is  signified  by  His  blood.  '  Into  Thy  hands  I  commend 
my  spirit,' — that  expresses  the  supreme  purpose  of  His  life 
and  death." 

"  The  day  of  judgment  is  not  the  only  last  day  :  it  is  a 
judgment,  a  crisis,  like  others  in  life.  We  are  judged  that  we 
may  be  taught,  not  taught  that  we  may  be  judged." 

He  was  fond  of  dwelling  on  the  passages  in  the  Bible 
which  bring  out  the  overbalance  of  love  and  mercy  as 
against  vengeance  and  wrath.  "  This,"  he  said,  "  shows 
the  right  proportion  of  faith."  And  one  of  these  to  which 
he  often  referred  was  the  close  of  the  second  commandment 
— "  visiting  the  sins  of  the  fathers  unto  the  third  and 
fourth  generation  of  them  that  hate  me,  and  shotting  mercy 
unto — (not  "thousands,"  as  of  individuals — but — )unto  the 

THOUSANDTH  AND  THOUSANDTH  GENERATION — (quoting  the 

words  of  the  Hebrew  original — )  of  them  that  love  me."  I 
never  read  that  part  of  the  commandment  without  thinking 
of  this  saying,  and  of  the  tones  in  which  he  uttered  it. 


B  V  DEAN  STANLE  Y.  457 

He  would  often  speak  of  the  incidents  in  life  which  seem 
like  steps  in  our  spiritual  education.  "  Every  one,"  he 
used  to  say,  "  ought  to  cherish  with  peculiar  care  the  one 
instance  in  life  which  seems  to  him  not  to  have  been 
fortuitous,  as  St.  Paul  did  the  vision  on  the  way  to 
Damascus." 

I  had  mentioned  to  him  immediately  after  my  appoint- 
ment to  the  Deanery  of  Westminster  that  I  was  startled 
by  hearing  in  the  service  on  the  day  of  my  installation  a 
special  prayer  which  had  always  been  used  on  such  occa- 
sions in  Westminster  Abbey,  that  the  new-comer  might 
be  enabled  to  do  his  best  for  the  enlargement  of  God's 
Church,  the  very  thing  which  seemed  to  me  most  important 
to  be  done.  This  delighted  him.  "  That,"  he  said,  "  is 
your  oracle  or  xpr)(T/j,6<; — just  like  the  oracle  delivered 
at  Delphi  to  Socrates  :  an  oracle  said  a  hundred  times 
before,  yet  at  last  lighting  on  the  man  who  felt  it." 

He  often  spoke  of  the  difficulty  of  accommodating  him- 
self entirely  to  any  one  form  of  Christian  worship.  "  I  am 
inclined,"  he  said  once,  "  to  think,"  with  a  full  sense  of  the 
humour  of  what  he  was  saying,  "  that  the  last  and  best 
revision  of  the  Liturgy  would  be  to  enjoin  absolute 
silence." 

Critical  Remarks. — He  had  no  turn  for  critical  inquiries 
himself,  but  was  much  delighted  in  conversing  about  them 
with  others.  When  he  first  read  Kenan's  book  he  exclaimed, 
"  This  is  beautiful !  If  it  is  to  be  answered  at  all,  it  should 
be  answered  in  French,  as  fine  as  its  own  French,  and  by 
another  Pascal !  Throughout  the  book  it  is  evident  that 
the  author  entertains  a  far  higher  idea  of  Christ  than  he 
likes  to  confess  even  to  himself." 

In  speaking  of  the  objection  which  religious  people  have 
to  histoi-ical  investigations  into  the  origin  of  the  Sacred 
Books,  he  said  it  reminded  him  always  of  the  speech  of 


458  REMINISCENCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE 

an  old  woman  to  Miss  Dundas,  who  was  telling  her  of  the 
journey  of  William  Dundas  to  Palestine,  "  Ye  '11  no'  tell 
me  that  there 's  such  a  place  on  earth  as  Jerusalem." 

"The  Aoyia  of  St.  Matthew  contains  not  only  the  teach- 
ing of  Christ,  but  Christ  Himself.  Look  at  the  seventh 
chapter." 

Personal  BemarJcs. — Here  are  a  few  anecdotes,  personal 
or  historical,  partly  interesting  in  themselves,  but  partly 
because  they  recall  the  peculiar  emphasis  with  which  he 
related  them. 

"'Do  you  know  what  the  Covenant  is?'  was  said  to 
an  old  Scottish  wife.  '  I  dinna  ken  what  it  is,  but  I  '11 
mainteen  't.'  That  expresses  a  vast  amount  of  common 
theology." 

"  What  is  so  very  remarkable  in  the  Old  Testament  is 
the  continuity  of  the  successive  teachers.  How  striking 
are  those  words  at  the  end  of  the  7  2d  Psalm,  even  though 
they  don't  specially  relate  to  it — '  The  prayers  of  David 
the  son  of  Jesse  are  ended.'  He  had  nothing  more  or 
greater  to  ask  for  than  the  petitions  of  the  7  2d  Psalm." 

"  Those  who  make  religion  their  God  will  not  have  God 
for  their  religion." 

"  How  I  wish  that  Paul  were  here  for  a  month  to  tell  us 
what  he  meant  by  yapiayua  in  the  5th  chapter  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  !  How  I  wish  that  he  had  but 
just  spoken  a  little  more  distinctly ! 

"  We  ought  not  to  deny  the  existence  of  anything  because 
of  the  difficulty  of  imagining  how  it  exists.  To  deny  the 
existence  of  rational  creatures  in  the  moon  because  it  is 
difficult  to  imagine  them  there,  is  like  the  priest  who  not 
being  able  to  find  the  Baptismal  Service  in  the  Mass-book, 
said,  '  C'est  un  enfant  tres-difficile  a  baptiser.'" 

To  the  question,  What  is  to  be  said  of  the  moral  pur- 
pose of  the  worst  characters  of  mankind  1 — "  Characters," 


BY  DEAN  STANLEY.  459 

he  said,  "  like  Iago  or  Judas,  or  like  many  of  the  depraved 
classes  of  great  towns,  are  to  be  explained  by  the  detesta- 
tion of  evil  they  cause  in  themselves  and  others.  The 
conversion  of  Judas  might  result  from  the  new  fact  of 
seeing  his  own  sin." 

"  Christianity  in  its  progress  through  the  world  has 
had  less  than  its  due.  Mohammedanism  in  its  progress 
has  had  more." 

"  There  are  some  men  who  are  profuse  in  giving  out  of 
their  own  mind  what  they  have.  Such  a  one  was  Bunsen  : 
that  is  noble.  There  are  others  who  economise  and  keep 
to  themselves  what  they  have,  unless  they  find  those  whom 
they  think  worthy  to  hear  it.  Such  has  been  some  other 
one  :  that  is  ignoble." 

A  servant  of  William  Stirling  of  Kerr,  in  1713,  was 
called  to  give  evidence  as  to  whether  his  master  had  been 
present  at  a  treasonable  meeting  at  the  Brig  of  Turk.  He 
swore  positively  that  he  had  not.  In  reply  to  the  remon- 
strances from  his  friends  when  he  came  out  for  this  mani- 
fest perjury,  he  said,  "  1  had  rather  trust  my  soul  in  God 
Almighty's  hands  than  my  master's  head  in  the  hands  of 
those  rascals." 

"  Adolphe  Monod,  had  he  lived  and  gone  forward,  would 
have  grown  out  of  the  sphere  of  his  admirers,  as,  in  fact,  did 
Vinet.  Vinet  could  count  those  who  wholly  sympathised 
with  him  on  his  five  fingers.  His  views  were  distorted  by 
the  temporary  controversy  on  the  relations  of  Church  and 
State ;  but  he  was  constantly  going  forward.-  He  had  a 
fine  power  of  writing." 

He  had  a  deep  sense  of  the  horror  of  human  wicked- 
ness, of  the  sinfulness  of  sin — the  more  remarkable  from 
his  fixed  belief  of  the  all-absorbing  mercy  of  God  and 
the  final  restoration  of  man.  It  was  impossible  to  con- 
tinue the   conversation  if  it  would  take  at  all  a  light  tone 


460  REMINISCENCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE 

in  speaking  of  some  base  or  dishonourable  act,  after  the 
short,  severe  condemnation  which  filled  his  whole  expres- 
sion, both  of  language  and  countenance.  And  I  seem 
still  to  hear  the  deep  tones  of  his  voice  repeating  the 
lines  from  Macbeth,  as  an  illustration  of  the  terrible  judg- 
ment of  conscience  upon  sin  : — 

"  Canst  thou  not  minister  to  a  mind  diseased : 
Pluck  from  the  memory  a  rooted  sorrow  ; 
Raze  out  the  written  troubles  of  the  brain  ; 
And  with  some  sweet  oblivious  antidote 
Cleanse  the  stuff' d  bosom  of  that  perilous  stuff, 
Which  weighs  upon  the  heart  ?  " 

"  What  is  Christianity  1  It  is  the  belief  in  the  inex- 
haustible love  of  God  for  man."  "  He  came  to  seek  that 
which  is  lost,  until  He  find  it."  "  What  is  human  exist- 
ence] It  is  not  probation,  it  is  education.  Every  step 
we  take  upwards  or  downwards  is  a  stepping-stone  to  some- 
thing else."  "  What  is  the  proper  use  of  Religion  1  The 
sun  was  made  to  see  by,  not  to  look  at."  "  What  is  the 
effect  of  Revelation  to  us  1  It  is  the  disclosure  to  us  of 
our  true  relations  to  God  and  to  one  another,  as  when 
an  exile,  after  long  years'  absence,  returns  home,  and  sees 
faces  which  he  does  not  recognise.  But  one  in  whom  he 
can  trust  comes  and  says,  'This  aged  man  is  your  father; 
this  boy  is  your  brother,  who  has  done  much  for  you ;  this 
child  is  your  son.'" 

These  and  such  as  these  were  amongst  the  sublime 
thoughts  that  sustained  his  soul  in  what  at  times 
might  have  seemed  an  almost  entire  isolation  from  all 
ecclesiastical  ordinances,  but  what  was,  in  fact,  a  com- 
munion with  the  inner  spirit  of  all.  Presbyterian  by  his 
paternal  connection  with  the  author  of  the  Institutes  and 


B  Y  DEAN  STANLE  V.  461 

the  minister  of  Greyfriars,  Episcopalian  by  his  maternal 
descent  and  by  his  early  education,  it  came  to  pass  that  in 
later  life,  whilst  still  delighting  in  the  occasional  services 
and  ministrations  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  enjoying  to 
the  last  the  tender  care  of  an  Episcopalian  curate,  he  yet 
frequented  the  worship  and  teaching  of  the  National 
Church,  both  in  country  and  in  town — a  living  proof 
of  the  effacement  of  those  boundary  dines  which,  before  the 
exasperations  of  our  latter  days,  were  to  many  of  the  best 
Episcopalians  and  Presbyterians  almost  as  if  they  did  not 
exist.  In  all  the  varying  Scottish  communions  he  had 
those  who  counted  his  friendship  one  of  their  chief  privi- 
leges; and  not  only  there,  and  in  the  hearts  of  loving 
friends  in  England,  but  far  away  with  Catholic  Frenchmen 
in  Normandy,  and  in  the  bright  religious  society  in  which 
he  had  dwelt  in  former  days  by  the  distant  shores  of 
Geneva,  his  memory  was  long  cherished,  and  will  not  pass 
away  so  long  as  any  survive  who  had  seen  him  face  to 
face. 

I  have  heard  it  said  that  once  meeting  a  shepherd  in  the 
Highlands,  he  said  to  him,  in  that  tone  which  combined  in 
so  peculiar  a  manner  sweetness  and  command,  and  with 
that  penetrating  emphasis  which  drew  out  of  every  word 
that  he  used  the  whole  depth  of  its  meaning, '  Do  you  know 
the  Father  Y  and  that  years  afterwards,  on  those  same  hills, 
he  encountered  the  same  shepherd,  who  recognised  him  and 
said,  '  I  know  the  Father  now.'  The  story,  whether  true  or 
not,  well  illustrates  the  hold  which  the  memory  of  that  face 
and  figure  and  speech  had  on  all  who  ever  came  across  it. 

There  are  not  a  few  to  whom  that  attenuated  form  and 
furrowed  visage  seemed  a  more  direct  link  with  the  unseen 
world  than  any  other  that  had  crossed  their  path  in  life. 
Always  on  the  highest  summits  at  once  of  intellectual  cul- 


462 


REMINISCENCES:   DEAN  STANLEY. 


tivation  and  of  religious  speculation,  he  seemed  to  breathe 
the  refined  atmosphere 

"  where  the  immortal  shapes 
Of  bright  aerial  spirits  live  insphered 
In  regions  mild,  of  calm  and  serene  air, 
Above  the  smoke  and  stir  of  this  dim  spot 
Which  men  call  Earth."  l 

1  See  Lectures  on  the  History  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  pp.  159-61. 


MRS.  STIRLING.  4G3 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

Death  of  his  two  Sisters. 

Mr.  Erskine  was  never  married,  but  all,  and  more  than 
all,  that  the  sisters  of  Charles  Lamb  and  Lord  Macaulay 
were  to  their  unmated  brothers,  his  two  sisters  were  to 
him.  With  a  deeper  meaning  than  was  in  the  poet's  words, 
he  could  have  said  of  Mrs.  Stirling  what  Wordsworth  said 
of  his  dear  sister  Dorothy  : — 

'  She  gave  me  eyes,  she  gave  me  ears  ; 
A  heart,  the  fountain  of  sweet  tears ; 
And  love,  and  thought,  and  joy.' 

After  her  short  and  childless  married  life,  Mrs.  Stirling 
returned  to  Linlathen  to  be  more  to  him  than  ever.  Of  the 
outward  things  of  life  he  took  but  little  charge;  they  were  left 
wholly  in  her  hands.  Gentle  and  gracious,  but  prudent  and 
firm,  unobtrusive  and  unimperious,  she  guided  all,  the  guid- 
ing hand  unfelt.  More  delicate  than  all  ordinary  domestic 
arrangements  were  her  close  and  tender  dealings  with  his  deep 
and  sensitive  nature.  In  his  more  peculiar  idiosyncrasies  he 
needed  sympathy  from  those  nearest  him.  Such  sympathy 
he  got  from  her  in  measure  so  full  that  no  want  was  ever 
felt,  yet  meted  out  so  wisely  as  to  be  largely  serviceable  in 
preserving  him  from  becoming  too  engrossed  with  the  domi- 
nant idea  of  the  time,  or  from  carrying  it  too  far.  In  this 
respect  the  understanding  between  them  was  as  complete 


464  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1866. 

as  the  attachment  throughout  was  entire  and  unbroken. 
Her  death  was  unexpected.  In  November  1866  her 
brother  and  she  had  removed  from  Linlathen  to  take  up 
their  quarters  for  the  winter  in  Edinburgh,  at  No.  14  Char- 
lotte Square.  She  was  in  her  usual  state  of  health  till  the 
end  of  the  month,  when  the  illness  came  upon  her  which 
in  a  few  days  proved  fatal.  In  all  her  illnesses  she  had 
been  especially  fond  of  quiet,  and  she  got  it  in  her  last. 
Early  on  the  morning  of  the  1st  December  Mr.  Erskine 
was  called  to  her  bed-side.  Sick-nurse  and  good  physician 
— their  last  offices  rendered — retired.  Brother  and  sister 
were  left  alone.  "  I  like  to  feel  you  near,"  she  said,  as  she 
took  his  hand,  patted  and  held  it.  He  felt  its  grasp  relaxing. 
Then  he  took  hers  and  held  it  till  her  gentle  spirit  passed 
quietly  away.  "  A  look  of  rest  and  peace  remains  on  her 
dear  face — a  smile  of  complete  satisfaction."  x  The  sad 
event  was  announced  on  its  occurrence  by  Mr.  Erskine 
himself  to  two  dear  friends,  and  seldom  has  the  character 
of  a  lost  sister  been  more  truthfully  and  vividly  described, 
seldom  has  a  death  been  more  pathetically  deplored,  than 
in  the  letters  which  follow. 


255.  TO  MRS.  GURNEY. 
16  Charlotte  Squake,  1st  and  4th  Dec.  1866. 
Beloved  Emily, — It  has  pleased  God  to  take  my  dear 
sister  Christian  to  Himself.  She  died  this  morning  after 
a  week's  illness,  having  been  to  me,  for  thirty  years,  my 
constant  companion,  my  faithful,  patient,  loving  friend,  my 
mother,  wife,  sister,  all  in  one.  .  .  . 

1  From  note  written  at  the  time  l>y  Mrs.  Paterson  to  her  uncle,  Dr. 
M'Leocl  Campbell. 


jet.  78.  LADY  AUGUSTA  STANLEY.  405 

256.    TO  LADY  AUGUSTA  STANLEY. 

Charlotte  Square,  3d  Dec.  1866. 
Beloved  Friend, — Do  you  know  what  has  come  upon 
us  ?  It  has  pleased  God  to  take  away  my  dearest  sister 
Mrs.  Stirling,  who  has  now  for  thirty  years  been  my  chief 
earthly  comfort  and  stay  and  guidance.  You  have  known 
her,  so  you  can  in  some  degree  appreciate  my  loss ;  she 
has  been  felt  by  all  who  have  come  near  her  to  be  the 
fitting  depository  of  all  sorrows  and  anxieties,  because  she 
had  a  heart  always  at  leisure  from  itself,  and  so  free  to 
give  a  listening  ear  and  a  loving  sympathy  to  every  human 
being.  I  never  heard  her  say  an  unkind  word  of  any  one, 
and  I  never  saw  her  weary  of  doing  good  to  any  one  whom 
she  had  once  taken  up,  however  undeserving. 

I  have  found  her  the  most  trustworthy  of  friends  and 
the  most  faithful  and  wisest  of  counsellors.  I  communi- 
cated everything  that  I  heard  or  knew  to  her — as  one 
always  sure  to  help  me  to  a  right  judgment  on  it.  And 
now  that  place  is  empty — on  which  I  used  to  lean  so  con- 
fidentially. It  is  empty,  but  God  is  behind  that  empty 
place,  and  I  believe  that  He  would  teach  me,  by  making- 
it  empty,  to  find  Himself  more  really  than  I  have  ever  done. 
All  her  patient  love  and  ready  sympathy  flowed  out  of  Him 
as  their  living  Fountain,  and  He  shows  us  the  streams  to 
guide  us  up  to  the  Fountain.  I  know  that  I  may  trust 
Him  fully — that  He  will  never  leave,  never  forsake — and 
yet  I  feel  a  desolateness  unutterable.  I  have  many  friends  ; 
but  none  could  fill  her  place.  She  had  no  crotchet,  nor 
caprice,  nor  vanity.  She  never  either  spoke  or  acted  for 
effect — all  was  love,  and  truth,  and  duty.  Beloved  and 
blessed  friend,  you  will  feel  with  me. — Yours  most  affec- 
tionately, T.  Erskine. 
My  loving  regards  to  the  Dean. 
2  G 


466  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1866. 

An  announcement  similar  to  these  was  sent  to  Mr.  Car- 
lyle,  from  whom  promptly  came  the  following  note,  one  of 
the  first  that  Mr.  Erskine  received,  and  one  of  the  most 
affectionate : — 

MR.  CARLYLE  TO  MR.  ERSKINE. 

Chelsea,  5th  Dec.  1866. 

Oh  my  dear  Mr.  Erskine,  what  a  boundless  disaster 
has  befallen  you ; — I  know  it  too  well !  The  one  that 
was  your  own  in  this  world  is  lost.  The  gentle,  wise,  and 
beautiful  soul,  who  had  lovingly  attended  you,  and  been 
your  fellow-pilgrim  and  guardian  spirit  for  so  many  years, 
is  gone  to  her  rest,  and,  in  this  world,  can  be  with  you  no 
more. 

I  know  well  enough  how  vain  are  human  words  of  com- 
fort, nor  will  importune  you  with  any  such :  you  will  go 
for  some  solacement  where  you  know  it  is  to  be  found ; 
and  time  and  meditation  will  abate  the  poignancy  of  what 
is  at  first  so  harsh  and  so  strange.  God  is  above  us  ;  she 
is  with  God,  even  as  we  are  :  what  more  can  we  say  1  If 
in  the  bitterness  of  your  grief  you  sometimes  reflect,  "  I 
am  suffering  this  in  her  stead ;  had  I  gone  first,  it  must 
have  been  she,"  you  may  find  that  a  momentary  encour- 
agement, if  only  a  momentary. 

I  write  no  more,  dear  Mr.  Erskine ;  but  I  understand 
well  how  sad  is  your  heart,  and  my  sympathy  with  you, 
could  it  do  the  least  good,  is  painfully  true.  God  be 
with  you,  dear  friend. — I  am  ever  affectionately  yours, 

T.  Carlyle. 

257.    TO  M.  CRAMER  MALLET. 
16  Charlotte  Square,  Edinr.,  18th  Dec.  1S66. 
Cher  ami, — Mdlle.  Clementine  aura  la  bonte  de  vous 
traduire  la  lettre  suivante.     It  has  pleased  God  to  take  to 


JET.  78.  REV  J.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL.  467 

Himself  my  dear  sister  Mrs.  Stirling,  who  has  all  her  life 
long  been  to  me  a  loving  friend,  and  for  the  last  thirty 
years  has  been  my  companion  and  fellow-pilgrim — the 
light  of  my  house,  and  the  wise  and  sympathising  arranger 
of  my  material  life,  as  well  as  the  gentle  helper  of  my 
spiritual  interests.  It  is  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  loss 
that  I  have  sustained;  at  the  same  time  I  feel  that  my 
sorrow  is  very  selfish,  for  the  gain  to  her  has  been  I  am 
sure  unspeakable.  I  cannot  expect  to  survive  her  long, 
being  now  seventy-eight  years  of  age  ;  but  I  know  that 
not  an  hour  of  that  time,  whether  it  be  longer  or  shorter, 
can  pass  without  my  feeling  my  need  of  her  who  has  so 
long  been  my  reminder  and  my  adviser.  I  often  feel  that 
by  this  dispensation  God  would  teach  me  to  know  that 
He  who  gave  the  gift  is  better  than  the  gift,  and  that  all 
the  confidence  which  I  placed  in  her  may  with  still  more 
assurance  be  placed  in  Him.  If  we  can  trust  ourselves  in 
the  hand  of  a  fellow-creature  with  undoubting  confidence, 
surely  we  do  wrong  to  God,  if  we  do  not  lie  with  still 
more  confidence  in  His  hands.  She  was  a  living  member 
of  Jesus  Christ,  witnessing  in  her  whole  life  that  same 
love  of  which  He  is  the  fountain.  Tell  this  to  your 
brother  Ernest,  that  I  may  have  his  sympathy  as  well  as 
yours.  Pray,  do  not  discontinue  to  write  to  me.  Your 
letters  are  always  interesting  to  me,  and  used  to  interest 
her  very  much.  I  value  your  friendship  exceedingly, 
remembering  also  the  love  of  your  dear  parents. — Ever 
affectionately  yours,  T.  Ekskine. 

258.    TO  THE  REV.  J.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL. 

16  Charlotte  Square,  1st  Jan.  1867. 
Dear  Mr.  Campbell, — I  enter  upon  a  new  year  with  a 
feeling  of  loneliness,  such  as  none  can  know  but  those  who 


468  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1867. 

have  known  and  lost  such  a  friend  as  my  dear  sister  has 
been  to  me  during  my  long  life,  and  more  especially  during 
the  last  thirty  years  that  we  have  passed  together  in  closest 
intercourse.  She  has  been  to  me  a  continual  stay,  and  sup- 
port, and  witness  for  God,  by  her  unwavering  fidelity,  and 
loving  wisdom,  and  diligence  in  all  duties. 

If  I  could  so  trust  her  as  I  have  trusted  her,  is  it  not 
doing  our  Father  great  wrong,  if  I  do  not  absolutely  and 
entirely  trust  Him? 

This  has  been  the  special  form  of  the  witness  which  she 
has  borne  of  God  to  the  hearts  of  many — for  she  has  been 
a  much-trusted  woman ;  people  of  all  characters  have  felt 
that  they  might  trust  her,  that  she  was  at  leisure  from 
herself  to  attend  to  them  and  their  griefs  or  interests 
with  her  whole  heart. 

I  feel  that  my  grief  is  for  myself  and  for  her  surviving 
friends,  and  that  she  must  now  be  nearer  the  fountain  of 
love.  "Having  loved  His  own  that  were  in  the  world, 
He  loved  them  unto  the  end."  Love  to  your  household. 
— Ever  affectionately  yours,  T.   Erskine. 

Mrs.  Paterson  was  living  at  Morningside  near  Edinburgh 
at  the  time  of  her  sister's  death.  Broken  health,  requiring 
change  of  climate,  and  family  ties  requiring  separate  resi- 
dence, had  hindered  her  from  being  so  much  with  her 
brother  as  her  elder  sister.  But  still  the  intercourse  was 
close  and  the  communion  perfect.  As  thoroughly  at  one 
with  him  in  all  the  favourite  ideas  as  her  sister,  there  was 
a  liveliness,  a  buoyancy,  a  force  in  her  sympathy,  as  com- 
pared with  that  of  her  more  placid-minded  sister,  which  if 
it  might  have  carried  him  farther  on,  would  have  lifted  him 
higher  up.  He  delighted  in  the  youthfulness  of  spirit 
present  in  her  to  the  close.  That  close  was  near  at  hand. 
She  scarcely  ever  left  her  room  after  Mrs.  Stirling's  death. 


jet.  78.  DEATH  OF  MRS.  PATERSON.  469 

Two  months  afterwards  she  became  suddenly  worse.  "  A 
joy  and  brightness  indescribable  shone  in  her  face  and  was 
heard  in  her  voice  as  at  the  close  of  a  week's  illness  the 
doctor  said  that  she  was  not  likely  to  live  another  day. 
"  Say  that  again,"  she  said.  "  Did  he  say — to-night — that 
I  shall  see  my  God?  Oh  joy,  joy  !"  The  joy  remained 
through  all  her  suffering.  She  spoke  of  all  whom  she  was 
so  soon  to  meet,  of  all  whom  she  left  behind,  passing  every 
friend  in  review  with  a  tender  word  of  farewell  for  each. 
The  favourite  idea  with  her  during  that  closing  week  was 
that  it  was  all  one  life — the  life  here  on  earth,  the  life 
there  in  Heaven.  In  an  interval  of  comparative  relief, 
on  the  closing  day,  her  eldest  grandchild  was  brought  to 
her.  She  took  the  child's  hand  in  her  own,  and  said, 
"  Darling  Mary,  this  is  not  the  end  of  life,  but  the  beginning 
of  an  endless  life ;  I  am  now  going  to  this  life  in  heaven, 
but  it  is  all  one  life.  The  life  of  Christ  on  earth — a  daily 
dying  to  self,  a  daily  dying  to  self — that  is  to  be  your  life,  my 
darling  child."  To  another  younger  grandchild  she  said, 
"  My  darling,  God  does  wish  you  to  be  so  good ;  God  does 
not  only  say, 'Boysie,  you  must  not  do  this,'  'Boysie,  you  dare 
not  do  that,'  but  '  My  child,  take  My  hand  and  walk  with 
Me.'  And  He  will  lead  you  in  the  paths  of  pleasantness, 
and  you  must  not  Avalk  in  them  alone,  you  must  take  your 
brother  with  you."  His  father  (her  son)  lifted  the  little 
boy  up  and  she  kissed  him.  With  grave  and  wondering 
look  the  child  was  borne  away,  and  after  one  burst  of 
grief  he  said  to  his  eldest  sister,  "  I  am  happy,  for  granny 
is  so  very  happy." 

Her  brother,  who  had  called  twice  daily,  now  came  in 

to  her.    "  Tom,  Tom,"  she  said,  "  I  shall  not  long  speak  to 

you.    Listen  to  God.    The  Brandon  Street  life  has  been  an 

open  book  before  me  these  two  days.1     The  life  there,  the 

1  Brandon  Street,  where  Mr.  M'Leod  Campbell  used  frequently  to  stay 


470  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1867. 

same  always — eternal  life.  .  .  .  Beloved  Mr.  Campbell, 
beloved  Mr.  Campbell.  .  .  .  To-night  I  shall  see  our  elder 
brother  ;  yes,  I  shall  see  our  dearest  James — but  it  is  Jesus 
I  mean.  Yes,  I  shall  see  him  to-night,  and  know  Him  for 
my  very  own  Elder  Brother.  Oh  wonderful !  oh  joy,  joy ! 
.  .  .  Best,  did  you  not  hear  that  1  it  was  so  clear.  Light, 
did  you  not  see  that  1  no,  you  could  not.  .  .  .  Hush,  hush  ! 
He  is  near."     Gently,  very  gently,  she  passed  away. 

259.    TO  LADY  AUGUSTA  STANLEY. 

16  Charlotte  Square,  27th  March  1S67. 

Beloved  One, — You  will  sorrow  with  me  in  this  sorrow 
as  few  can,  for  you  had  received  much  of  her  love,  and 
knew  its  truth  and  sweetness  and  holiness,  and  you  had 
returned  her  love,  as  a  loving,  trustful  child.  It  is  a  call 
upward  to  all  who  knew  her,  for  such  love  as  hers  is  rarely 
seen  on  this  earth.  I  almost  remember  her  birth,  and  she 
has  always  appeared  to  me  as  a  child — so  young  and  fresh 
and  simple  in  all  her  ways.  I  am  glad  the  Dean  knew  her, 
for  he  will  be  able  to  understand  what  you  may  feel  and 
say  about  her. 

All  things  seem  changing,  but  God  remains  a  faithful 
Creator,  absolutely  to  be  depended  on.  "  I  will  never  leave 
thee  nor  forsake  thee."  And  whatever  of  earthly  love  we 
hold  in  Him  will  always  remain  imperishable.  These  two 
sisters  of  mine  are  withdrawn  from  my  sight,  but  the  places 
which  they  occupied  are  not  empty ;  God  is  there,  and  if  I 
find  them  empty,  it  is  because  my  spiritual  perception  does 
not  discover  Him  there.  This  is  the  lesson  which  I  have 
to  learn  hour  by  hour.  I  hope  you  sometimes  see  dear 
Katherine,  Mrs.  Erskine,  who  is  now  my  nearest  earthly 

with  the  Miss  Patersons,  anil  where  Captain  and  Mrs.  Paterson  used  to 
meet  him. 


jet.  78.  M.  CRAMER  MALLET.  471 

tie,  and  who,  I  hear,  is  very  delicate,  and  feeling  herself 
tottering. 

My  hour,  as  well  as  hers,  cannot  be  distant.  What  a 
curious  effect  the  noise  and  boisterousness  of  political  life 
have  in  the  presence  of  the  deep  silence  of  eternal  things  ! 
— Ever  with  true  love  yours,  T.  Erskine. 

260.    TO  M.  CRAMER  MALLET. 

16  Charlotte  Square,  21th  March  1867. 

Cher  et  ancien  ami,  fils  des  amis  cheris, — Mdlle. 
Clementine  aura  la  bont6  de  vous  traduire  cette  lettre,  qu'il 
me  faut  6crire  en  Anglais,  car  je  suis  trop  accable  pour 
m'arranger  faire  une  lecon  franchise. 

My  beloved  sister  Mrs.  Paterson  has  not  been  long  of 
following  her  elder  sister.  I  saw  her  breathe  her  last  on 
Saturday  night,  the  23d  March,  and  now  I  remain  the  only 
survivor  of  my  family.  These  two  sisters  have  been  good 
and  precious  gifts  to  me,  for  which  I  desire  to  be  most 
thankful  to  my  heavenly  Father.  They  have  been  most 
helpful  to  me,  by  enabling  me  to  realise  that  I  live  encom- 
passed by  an  ever-loving  presence,  and  care  of  God.  They 
have  been  streams  out  of  that  infinite  Fountain,  bear- 
ing witness  to  its  unfailing  fulness.  Her  symptoms  did 
not  alarm  her  family  till  within  a  very  few  days  of  the 
end ;  but  she  had  herself  felt  the  approach  of  death,  and 
longed  for  it,  as  the  entrance  into  near  communion  with 
her  Father  and  her  Saviour. 

I  never  knew  any  one  who  had  more  spiritual  enjoy- 
ment than  she  for  many  years,  and  she  had  that  frank  and 
open  nature  that  allowed  her  to  utter  what  she  felt.  It 
would  be  most  ungrateful  to  God,  and  most  unkind  to 
them,  to  grudge  them  their  deliverance  from  the  burden  of 
life,  and  their  entrance  into  the  fuller  joy  of  their  Lord  ; 
but  their  departure  has  made  the  world  very  empty  to  me. 


472  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1867. 


I  believe  that  my  Father's  purpose  to  me  in  all  this  is  to 
make  me  know  and  feel  more  than  I  have  ever  done  that 
He  is  Himself  my  rest,  and  joy,  and  dwelling-place.  My 
affectionate  regards  to  your  sisters-in-law,  and  daughters, 
and  Ernest. — Dear  friend,  very  truly  yours, 

T.  Erskine. 

Mr.  Carlyle,  as  before,  hastened  with  words  of  sym- 
pathy : — 

MR.  CARLYLE  TO  MR.  ERSKINE. 

Chelsea,  1st  April  1867. 
Dear  Mr.  Erskine, — Your  mournful  tidings,  not  un- 
anticipated, were  abundantly  sad  to  us  here  ;  and  have 
been  painfully  present  ever  since,  though  till  now  I  have 
written  nothing.  Alas !  what  can  writing  do  in  such  a  case1? 
The  inexorable  stroke  has  fallen ;  the  sore  heart  has  to 
carry  on  its  own  unfathomable  dialogue  with  the  Eternities 
and  their  gloomy  Fact ;  all  speech  in  it,  from  the  friendliest 
sympathiser,  is  apt  to  be  vain,  or  worse.  Under  your 
quiet  words  in  that  little  note,  there  is  legible  to  me  a 
depth  of  violent  grief  and  bereavement,  which  seems  to  en- 
join silence  rather.  We  knew  the  beautiful  soul  that  has 
departed,  the  love  that  had  united  you  and  Her  from  the 
beginnings  of  existence, — and  how  desolate  and  sad  the 
scene  now  is  for  him  who  is  left  solitary.       Ah  me  !   ah 

me ! 

Yesterday  gone  a  twelvemonth  (31  March  1866,  Saturday 
by  the  day  of  the  week)  was  the  day  I  arrived  at  your 
door  in  Edinburgh,  and  was  met  by  that  friendliest  of 
Hostesses  and  you  ;  three  days  before,  I  had  left  at  the 
door  of  this  room  one  clearer  and  kinder  than  all  the  earth 
to  me,  whom  I  was  not  to  behold  again  :  what  a  change 
for    you    since    then,  what    a    change    for  me!      Change 


JET.  78.  MR.   CARLYLE.  473 

after  change  following  upon  both  of  us, — upon  you 
especially ! 

It  is  the  saddest  feature  of  old  age,  that  the  old  man 
has  to  see  himself  daily  grow  more  lonely ;  reduced  to 
commune  with  the  inarticulate  Eternities,  and  the  Loved 
Ones  now  unresponsive  who  have  preceded  him  thither. 
Well,  Avell ;  there  is  a  blessedness  in  this  too,  if  we  take  it 
well.  There  is  a  grandeur  in  it,  if  also  an  extent  of  sombre 
sadness,  which  is  new  to  one ;  nor  is  hope  quite  wanting, 
— nor  the  clear  conviction  that  those  whom  we  would  most 
screen  from  sore  pain  and  misery  are  now  safe  and  at  rest. 
It  lifts  one  to  real  kingship  withal,  real  for  the  first  time 
in  this  scene  of  things.  Courage,  my  friend ;  let  us  endure 
patiently  and  act  piously,  to  the  end. 

Shakespeare  sings  pathetically  somewhere  : — 

"  Fear  no  more  the  heat  of  the  sun, 
Nor  the  furious  winter's  rages  ; 
Thou  thy  weary  task  hast  done, 
Home  hast  gone,  and  ta'en  thy  wages  ;" 

— inexpugnable  and  well  art  thou  I  These  tones  go  tink- 
ling through  me,  sometimes,  like  the  pious  chime  of  far-off 
church  bells. 

Adieu,  my  friend.  I  must  come  to  Scotland  again  at 
least  once,  if  I  live  ;  and  while  you  are  there  it  is  not  quite 
a  solitary  country  to  me. — Yours  ever  truly, 

T.  Carlyle. 


261.    TO  ME.  CARLYLE. 

16  Charlotte  Square,  5th  April  1867. 
Dear  Mr.  Carlyle, — Your  good  and  kind  words  are 
always  very  welcome  and  helpful.     A  purpose  of  goodness 
and  kindness  at  the  foundation  of  all  things,  and  ordering 


474 


LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


1867. 


all  things,  is  the  only  rest  for  the  soul  of  man  amidst  the 
agitations  of  time,  and  every  loving  voice  that  reaches  me 
bears  its  testimony  to  the  existence  of  such  a  purpose,  and 
its  great  Purposer.  Yes,  what  changes  have  come  upon 
both  of  us  since  that  31st  of  March  last  year,  darkening 
our  whole  horizon !  Still  let  us  be  comforted  by  the 
assurance  that  there  is  no  accident  in  them,  and  that  indeed 
that  wise  and  loving  purpose  underlies  them  all,  and,  when 
truly  entered  into  and  understood,  gives  them  a  satisfying 
interpretation. 

The  complete  separation  which  death  makes  is  indeed 
wonderful — we  must  walk  by  faith  and  hope,  or  else  lie 
down  and  die.  I  have  great  pleasure  in  reading  the  Psalms, 
and  I  endeavour  to  persevere  in  the  same  kind  of  work 
which  has  long  occupied  and  interested  me,  and  thus  I 
keep  afloat.  Your  recognition  of  me  as  one  of  the  ties  still 
drawing  you  to  Scotland  is  very  gratifying.  My  kind 
regards  to  the  Doctor,1  whose  letter  I  have  this  morning 
received. — Yours  affectionately,  T.  Ersktne. 


1  Mr.  Carlyle's  brother. 


.et.  78.  MISS  WEDGWOOD.  475 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

Letters  of  1867-6S-69. 

After  Mrs.  Paterson's  death,  at  Mr.  Erskine's  desire  her 
son  with  his  family  took  up  their  permanent  residence  at 
Linlathen.  He  joined  them  there  in  the  autumn  of  1867. 
The  sense  of  utter  bereavement  never  left  him,  but  very 
touching  was  the  simplicity  and  grateful  tenderness  with 
which  he  met  the  unremitting  attentions  of  every  member 
of  the  new  household  and  the  sympathy  of  old  friends 
who  came  to  visit  him  in  his  sorrow.  He  kept  up  as  he 
was  able  his  old  habit  of  going  about  among  the  cottages 
of  the  poor,  and  no  sympathy  was  more  welcome  to  him 
than  that  which  came  to  him  from  those  who  mourned 
with  him  over  a  common  loss.  It  pleases  us  to  notice  that 
there  was  another  healing  influence  from  which  his  deep 
grief  did  not  shut  him  out,  to  which  he  was  as  open  as  he 
had  ever  been.  On  the  1 9th  September  he  writes  to  a 
friend  : — 

2G2.    TO  MISS  WEDGWOOD. 

Linlathen,  19th  Sept.  1867. 
...  I  have  been  paying  a  visit  to  Miss  Dundas 
at  Perth  for  the  last  week,  and  have  been  making 
acquaintance  with  a  most  beautiful  country,  which  has 
always  been  within  my  reach,  but  has  never  been  really 
understood  and  felt  by  me   till    on    this    occasion.     The 


476  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1867. 

river  Tay  at  Perth  and  above  it  is  a  glorious  thing.  It  is 
just  of  a  right  size,  quite  graspable,  but  deep  and  strong 
and  living,  rapid  and  yet  unbroken.  Like  the  Rhone  and 
the  Rhine,  it  comes  out  of  a  lake,  quite  pure  and  full-grown. 
I  think  it  more  companionable  than  these  are,  because  not 
so  large.  When  you  come  again  you  must  try  to  get  ac- 
quainted with  him.  I  have  been  also  seeking  deeper  and 
more  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  Creator  of  all  things, 
with  my  Creator,  whose  hands  have  made  me  and  fashioned 
me,  and  whose  continual  care  of  me  is  necessary  to  my 
existence.  My  spiritual  life,  I  am  sure,  must  consist  in 
love,  and  there  can  be  no  other  ever  present,  ever  em- 
bracing love  but  His. — Ever  affectionately  yours, 

T.  Erskine. 

Within  doors  at  Linlathen  much  of  his  time  was  given 
to  that  work  upon  which  now  more  than  ever  he  was  bent, 
but  which  increasing  infirmities  rendered  him  less  and  less 
capable  of  accomplishing  as  he  desired.  A  pleasing  break 
came  in  the  arrival  of  a  literary  package  from  Mr.  Maurice, 
which  was  thus  acknowledged  : — 

263.    TO  MR.  MAURICE. 

Linlathen,  Dundee,  2Sth  Oct.  1867. 

Dear  Friend, — I  thank  you  for  your  kind  gifts.  I 
always  find  instruction  in  your  thoughts.  Our  ordinary 
theology  has  been  drawn  chiefly  from  the  Ejjistles,  and  often 
seems  almost  to  overlook  the  personal  teaching  of  Christ. 
I  have  heard  a  very  intelligent  professor  say,  that  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  distinctly  taught  justification  by 
works,  in  opposition  to  the  Pauline  doctrine.  I  conceive 
that  any  one  who  has  such  an  idea  must  misunderstand 
both  of  his  authorities. 

By  faith,  Paul  certainly  means  filial  trust  (the  faith  of 


jet.  79.  FROM  MR.  MAURICE.  477 

Jesus — the  faith  which  Jesus  [the  Son  of  God]  had  :  thus 
assuming  that  we  are  also  His  children,  else  we  could  not 
be  called  to  have  that  faith).  And  assuredly  our  Lord 
rests  the  whole  of  His  teaching  on  the  fatherly  relation  of 
God  to  us.  "  That  ye  may  be  the  children  of  your  Father." 
He  is  already  your  Father,  but  He  desires  that  you  should 
be  His  worthy  children. 

I  have  been  struck  lately  by  the  communication  which 
God  made  to  Moses  at  the  Burning  Bush.  "  I  am  " — the 
personal  presence  and  address  of  God.  No  new  truth  con- 
cerning the  character  of  God  is  given ;  but  Moses  had  met 
God  Himself,  and  was  thus  strengthened  to  meet  Pharaoh. 
There  is  an  immense  interval  between  "  He  "  and  "  I " — 
between  hearing  about  God  and  hearing  God.  What  an/ 
interval ! 

I  wish  that  you  had  a  church  in  Cambridge  as  well  as  a 
chair — they  might  complete  each  other.  I  felt  a  need  to 
apologise  for  my  last  letter,  and  I  feel  a  similar  need  now. 
— Ever  affectionately  yours,  T.  ERSKINE. 

The  winter  of  1867-68  was  again  spent  in  Edinburgh. 
A  visit  from  Mr.  Maurice  was  doubly  prized  as  having 
been  volunteered.     On  both  sides  it  was  fully  appreciated. 

MR.  MAURICE  TO  MR.  ERSKINE. 

3  St.  Peter's  Terrace,  Cambridge,  \Wi  Jan.  1868. 
My  dear  Friend, — I  do  indeed  look  back  with  much 
wonder  and  thankfulness  to  the  intercourse  with  you  which 
inaugurated  the  beginning  of  this  year  for  me.  There  is 
so  much  in  tho  interchange  of  convictions,  even  if  one  re- 
ceived nothing  fresh  ;  but  you  gave  me  what  was  the  quick- 
ening of  thought  and  life  that  had  been  in  me  doubtless, 
but  that  were  not  clearly  and  consciously  in  me,  so  that  I 


478  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1868. 

felt  you  to  be  truly  an  instrument  of  the  Spirit  doing  and 
fulfilling  His  work  I  have  especially  recurred  to  all  you 
said  about  faith.  It  seems  to  me  that  all  my  teaching  here 
ought  to  be  affected  by  it.  I  cannot  help  fearing  that  we 
have  been  trying  to  build  social  life  and  personal  life  upon 
distrust  and  suspicion  of  each  other,  and  of  God ;  and  that 
the  human  ^609  is  as  you  said  that  of  trust ;  the  man,  the 
divine  man,  being  the  truster  Himself,  and  the  source  of  trust 
in  all  the  race.  I  quite  feel  with  you  that  Christ's  trust 
in  the  Father  is  the  sign  and  witness  of  His  divine  nature, 
that  which  corresponds  to  and  shows  forth  the  righteous- 
ness of  God,  that  which  is  the  form  of  righteousness  for 
man.  And  I  cannofdoubt  that  in  Him  God  has  justified  the 
trust  of  every  man,  Jew  and  Gentile,  since  the  foundation 
of  the  world,  and  pronounced  sentence  on  all  the  distrust 
and  self-exaltation  of  every  Jew  and  Gentile.  All  poli- 
ties and  societies  grew  up,  I  conceive,  through  the  trust  of 
men  in  each  other,  and  through  trust  in  some  one  whom 
'  they  could  not  see  and  could  not  hear,  but  who,  they  felt, 
was  not  far  from  any  one  of  them.     And  as  clearly  and 

I  obviously  all  polities  and  societies  perished  through  distrust 
of  the  members  in  each  other,  and  through  distrust  of  their 
Father  in  heaven,  through  the  establishment  of  some  dark 
power  to  be  dreaded  and  hated,  not  trusted,  in  His  place. 
I  The  revelation  of  the  Father  by  the  Son,  as  well  as  of  the 
Son  by  the  Father,  was  in  truth  that  which  men  in  all  dif- 
ferent ways,  in  their  social  acts  and  theories,  as  much  as 
what  would  be  called  the  religious  acts  and  theories,  had 
been  showing  that  they  needed.  Christ  came  in  the  fulness 
of  the  time  to  bring  to  light  the  mystery  that  had  been 
about  all  ages  and  generations,  though  hidden  from  all. 
And  in  all  ages  since,  the  trust  of  men  in  every  work  they 
have  en^a^ed  in,  as  thinkers,  discoverers,  martyrs,  has  had 
no  other  root  than  that  faith  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  confidence 


.*T.  79.  FROM  MR.  MAURICE.  479 

of  Him  in  His  Father  which  sustained  Him  in  life  and 
death,  and  to  which  He  appealed  in  every  leper,  and  blind, 
and  palsied  man,  as  well  as  in  every  one  whom  He  raised 
from  the  dead.  That  I  understood  to  be  your  meaning, 
and  my  conscience  thoroughly  responded  to  it. 

I  wish  I  had  read  more  of  your  book  and  talked  more 
about  it  with  you.  That  part  I  read  interested  me  deeply. 
And,  I  think,  when  you  come  to  the  third  chapter  of  which 
you  speak,  you  will  be  able  to  show  how  much  its  sense  has 
been  perverted  by  the  efforts  to  make  out  a  charge  of  uni- 
versal depravity  from  it  as  the  reason  for  the  necessity  of 
faith,  whereas  if  I  read  him  aright  he  is  teaching  us  that  the 
Psalmist  found  among  the  Jews  of  his  age — those  Jews 
who  were  in  the  covenant,  and  had  every  call  to  exercise 
faith, — an  utter  want  of  it,  and  therefore  great  moral  cor- 
ruption. "  What  the  law  speaks,  it  speaks  to  those  who 
are  under  the  law."  The  Jew  is  proved  to  have  no  better 
standing  ground,  in  himself,  or  in  his  national  privileges, 
than  another  man,  that  he  and  all  might  know  that  they 
have  a  standing  ground  in  God's  righteousness — that  no 
trust  in  that  can  be  wrong  or  can  fail.  All  are  concluded 
under  sin,  and  proved  to  be  sinners  in  themselves,  that 
they  might  be  all  righteous  in  God,  that  they  might,  Gen- 
tiles as  well  as  Jews,  believe  that  Christ  had  manifested 
that  for  their  justification.  Justification  by  faith  is  surely  \ 
a  most  wholesome  and  comfortable  doctrine,  when  it  means 
faith  in  a  Justifier,  in  one  who  is  righteous  and  who  makes 
righteous.  But  is  it  not  a  pestilent  doctrine  if  it  means 
that  we  are  justified  by  faith  in  our  difference  from  those 
who  are  not  justified  ]  That  is  the  very  faith  which  St. 
Paul  is  beating  to  pieces  as  the  essential  unbelief. 

F.  D.  Maurice. 


4S0  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


The  "  dark  hollow  of  the  year  "  was  cheered  by  this  letter 
from  Mr.  Carlyle  : — 

MR.  CARLYLE  TO  MR.  ERSKINE. 

Chelsea,  23d  January  1868. 
Dear  Mr.  Erskine, — The  sight  of  your  handwriting  is 
itself  welcome  and  cheering  to  me  at  all  times.  And  I  owe 
you  many  thanks  this  time  for  that  pious  little  visit  you 
have,  made  to  Greenend  and  poor  Betty.1  Often  had  I 
thought  of  asking  you  to  do  such  a  thing  for  me  by  some 
opportunity,  but,  in  the  new  sad  circumstances,  never  had 
the  face.  Now  that  the  ice  is  broken,  let  me  hope  you  will 
from  time  to  time  continue,  and  on  the  whole,  keep  your- 
self and  me  in  some  kind  of  mutual  visibility  with  poor 
Betty,  so  long  as  we  are  all  spared  to  continue  here.  The 
world  has  not  many  shrines  to  a  devout  man  at  present,  and 
perhaps  in  our  own  section  of  it  there  are  few  objects  hold- 
ing more  authentically  of  Heaven  and  an  unseen  "  better 
world  "  than  the  pious  loving  soul  and  patient  heavy-laden 
life  of  this  poor  old  venerable  woman.  The  love  of  human 
creatures  one  to  another,  where  it  is  true  and  unchangeable, 
often  strikes  me  as  a  strange  fact  in  their  poor  history,  a 
kind  of  perpetual  Gospel,  revealing  itself  in  them;  sad, 
solemn,  beautiful,  the  heart  and  mother  of  all  that  can,  in 
any  way,  ennoble  their  otherwise  mean  and  contemptible 
existence  in  this  world. 

I  am  very  idle  here,  very  solitary,  which  I  find  to  be 
oftenest  less  miserable  to  me  than  the  common  society  that 
offers.  Excepting  Froude  almost  alone,  whom  I  see  once  a 
week,  there  is  hardly  anybody  whose  talk,  always  polite, 
clear,  sharp,  and  sincere,  does  me  any  considerable  good. 
He  has  an  excellent  article  in  the  last  Fraser's  Magazine, 
on  "  Protestantism,"  which  I  think  you,  if  you  have  not 
already  read  it,  would  read  with  sympathy. 

1  Mrs.  Braid,  referred  to  in  page  328. 


*T.  79.        MR.    CAMPBELL  TO  HLS  DAUGHTER.  481 

It  is  a  great  evil  to  me  that  now  I  have  no  work,  none 
worth  calling  by  the  name ;  that  I  am  too  weak,  too  lan- 
guid, too  sad  of  heart,  to  be  fit  for  any  work,  in  fact  to  care 
sufficiently  for  any  object  left  me  in  the  world,  to  think  of 
grappling  round  it  and  coercing  it  by  work.  A  most  sorry 
dog-kennel  it  oftenest  all  seems  to  me,  and  wise  words,  if 
one  even  had  them,  to  be  only  thrown  away  on  it.  Basta- 
basta,  I  for  most  part  say  of  it,  and  look  with  longings 
towards  the  still  country  where  at  last  we  and  our  loved 
ones  shall  be  together  again.     Amen,  amen. 

A  sister  of  mine  is  with  me  here  for  these  two  months, 
to  help  us  through  the  dark  hollow  of  the  year;  it  is  the 
one  you  saw  in  Edinburgh,  as  she  right  well  remembers,  I 
can  see.  Lady  Ashburton  is  again  in  Mentone  with  her 
child.     Adieu,  dear  friend. — Yours  ever, 

T.  Carlyle. 

The  close  of  February  brought  another  friend  to  Mr. 
Erskine's  side,  who  gives  this  notice  of  their  intercourse  : — 

REV.  J.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL  TO  MRS.  MACNABB. 

Laurel  Bank,  4t7i  March  1868. 
.  .  .  Mr.  Erskine  was  better  than  I  expected  to  find 
him;  and,  as  usual,  I  felt  more  fellowship  with  him  in 
what  seems  to  be  his  life,  and  what  I  desire  may  more  and 
more  be  my  own  life,  than  I  ever  feel  with  any  other  man. 
This  notwithstanding  of  differences  in  our  understanding 
of  many  passages  of  Scripture,  and  even  in  our  thoughts : 
— his  tendency  to  reduce  many  aspects  of  truth  to  one 
making  him  hesitate  to  see  now  the  importance,  not  to 
say  the  correctness,  of  what  he  once  urged ;  making  him, 
indeed,  appear  to  give  up  what  he  once  held.  I  do  not 
believe  that  his  views  have  at  all  changed  as  they  appear 
to  himself  to  have  done  ;  and  I  have  urged  him  to  have 

2  11 


482  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1868. 


his  old  books  read  to  him,  in  the  expectation  that  he  may- 
receive  from  his  former  self,  so  to  speak,  strictures  upon 
what  he  now  dwells  exclusively  on,  that  he  cannot  easily 
receive    from  another.      This,   however,    I    say    with   no 
reference    to    that   great    distinguishing    element   in    his 
thoughts,  viz.,  his  expectation  as  to  "the  restitution  of  all 
things "  which  had  a  place  in  him  before  I  knew  him  : 
although  occupation  with  the  present  gospel  of  remission 
of  sins  through  the  death  of  Christ  for  all  men,  did,  in  the 
Row  days,  and  for  a  considerable  time,  seem  to  engross 
him  and  be  all  the  gospel  he  needed.     Now  he  feels  that 
to  be  but  the  first  element  in  the  gospel,  and  the  hope, 
into  which  he  sees  it  expanding,  he  feels  essential  to  its 
being  to  him  gospel  indeed ;  while  he  further  sees  what  is 
to  him  implied  in  the  love  of  God  to  man  manifest  in  the 
death  of  Christ,  not  only  as  so  implied,  but  as  actually  taught 
by  St.  Paul,  and  what  we  must  see  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  if  we  understand  it.     Whether  he  will  ever  satisfy 
himself  with  the   adequacy  of  his   own   bringing   out   of 
the   apostle's  teaching  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  so 
as  to  publish  it,  I  know  not,  but  he  still  labours  at  this 
work.1 

Before  the  first  anniversary  of  Mrs.  Paterson's  death  came 
round  another  of  the  old  Linlathen  circle  died  in  London, 

his  brother's  widow.     On  the  4th  March  he  had  written 

to  her : — 

264.    TO  MRS.  ERSKINE. 

2  Forres  Street,  4th  March  1S68. 
Beloved  Katherine, — I  am  afraid  from  your  continued 
silence  that  you  at  least  feel  disinclined  to  make  any  exer- 
tion, which  indicates  weakness,  if  nothing  more.     I  wish  to 

1  The  result  of  these  labours  was  published  after  Mr.  Erskine's  death 
in  the  volume  entitled  The  Spiritual  Order. 


.BT.  79-  DEATH  OF  MRS.  JAMES  ERSKINE.  483 

let  you  know,  however,  that  I  do  not  cease  to  think  of  you, 
in  connection  with  the  past  and  the  future,  with  memory 
and  hope.  I  was  thinking  of  your  dear  mother  this  morn- 
ing, and  her  ready  sympathy  with  any  spiritual  thought 
or  feeling,  and  her  preparedness  for  the  blessedness  of  the 
communion  of  saints.  We  can  conceive  her  joy  as  she 
advances  in  acquaintance  with  the  unsearchable  riches  of 
Christ,  and  with  the  love  of  God  which  passeth  knowledge. 
There  is  a  great  company,  continually  increasing,  of  those 
who  follow  the  Lamb  wheresoever  He  goeth,  from  all  nations 
and  kindreds,  and  ours  are  with  them.  Since  I  last  wrote 
to  you  I  have  had  a  visit  from  dear  Maurice,  who  is  most 
affectionate,  and  Mrs.  Schwabe,  and  Mr.  Campbell,  who 
was  with  me  for  a  week — a  very  precious  man,  a  man  of 
much  prayer. 

I  find  human  kindness  a  great  help  to  realising  the  love 
of  God.  '  If  ye  being  evil  can  thus  love,  how  much  more 
will  your  Father  who  is  perfect  in  goodness  % ' 

Give  my  love  to  any  friends  whom  you  may  see. — Ever 
affectionately  yours,  T.  Erskine. 

Do  you  sleep  tolerably  1 

Before  this  letter  reached  her,  Mrs.  Erskine  had  joined 
the  company  to  which  it  alludes.  "I  have  not  seen 
much  of  her  lately,"  Mr.  Erskine  wrote  to  one  friend, 
"but  she  was  one  of  the  same  class  and  school  as  my 
sisters,  and  she  Avas  faithful  in  her  relations  to  God  and 
man.  She  has  '  brought  up  children/  which  is  one  of  the 
special  duties  of  a  Avidow,  and  she  evidently  lived  much  in 
the  presence  of  God.  Her  death,  though  looked  forAvard 
to  by  herself  as  an  event  which  could  not  be  distant,  yet 
AA-as  sudden  at  the  last.  She  appeared  as  avcII  as  usual  on 
Sunday,  and  she  Avas  dead  on  Wednesday  at  5  p.m.  She 
kneAV  the  hand  that  held  her,  and  felt  herself  safe  in  it. 


484  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1868. 

The  young  family  that  she  has  been  guiding  so  long  will 
miss  her  much.  Indeed,  all  who  knew  her  will  miss  her 
as  a  witness  for  God  and  a  helper  of  their  faith. — Yours, 
etc.,  T.  Erskine." 

And  to  another : — "  She  was  an  admirable  woman, 
faithful  and  diligent  in  all  duties,  and  unwearied  in  her 
efforts  to  help  those  who  needed  her  help.  I  believe  also 
that  she  was  scrupulously  conscientious  in  her  own  inner 
walk  with  God,  seeking  to  bring  every  thought  under  sub- 
jection to  His  will,  to  His  love ;  and  she  had  learned  to 
love." 

Of  Mr.  Erskine's  daily  drives  in  the  course  of  this  winter 
one  singular  memorial  has  been  preserved  in  a  letter  to 
Miss  Wedgwood,  dated  1 9th  March  : — 

2G5.    TO  MISS  WEDGWOOD. 

2  Forres  Street,  19th  March  1S68. 
FiGLlAMiA, — .  .  .  In  my  drives  I  generally  go  out  towards 
the  west,  and  of  course  return  with  my  face  towards  the 
east.  During  the  winter  I  was  attracted  and  interested  by 
the  frequent  recurrence  of  the  same  natural  phenomenon. 
The  moon  rose  a  little  before  the  sun  set,  and  had  just  the 
appearance  of  a  thin  bit  of  fleecy  cloud,  like  a  great  many 
others,  for  in  the  hazy  atmosphere  its  outline  was  not  at 
all  distinct.  I  was  not  looking  out  for  the  moon,  and  so  it 
was  often  a  good  while  before  I  identified  it  as  the  moon. 
I  saw  it  simply  as  a  bit  of  cloud  floating  about  along  with 
many  others  of  a  like  tissue  and  even  a  like  form.  At  last 
it  gradually  distinguished  itself  from  the  rest  by  having 
always  the  same  shape  and  the  same  place.  It  got  occa- 
sionally covered  over  or  merged  in  the  other  fleecy  things  ; 
but  still  it  never  failed  to  reassert  its  own  individuality. 
It  was  evidently  a  permanent  thing  amongst  changeable 


jet.  79.  BISHOP  EWING.  485 

things, — an  objective  thing  amongst  subjective  things,  shall 
I  say1?  For  I  felt  that  these  clouds  were  exhalations 
from  myself  (I  being  the  earth),  suggestions  of  my  own 
mind,  continually  liable  to  change  through  the  modifica- 
tions which  they  suffered  from  other  thoughts ;  they  were 
all  decidedly  subjective.  At  the  same  time  they  bore  wit- 
ness not  unfrequently  to  .the  existence  of  an  objective,  just 
as  the  clouds  bear  witness  to  the  existence  of  the  sun  by 
the  glory  which  they  receive  from  him.  But  I  wanted  and 
needed  to  have  the  consciousness  of  the  actual  presence  of 
the  great  Objective  in  me, — not  thoughts  about  Him,  but 
Himself,  or  at  least  something  which  I  was  sure  did  not 
depend  upon  myself,  but  would  always  assert  its  own  dis- 
tinct independent  reality,  and  which  could  not  possibly  be 
my  own  imagination,  having  this  personal  power  and  life 
in  it,  unmistakeably. 

I  don't  like  to  go  on  with  this,  but  I  should  like  to 
finish  it  viva  voce  with  you.  The  faculty  of  blundering 
grows  upon  me. — Your  ever  loving,  T.  Erskine. 

When  you  see  Mrs.  Kich,  embrace  her  for  me.  She  has 
known  most  of  those  whom  I  have  chiefly  loved  in  this 
world,  and  that  is  itself  an  immense  boon.  I  hope  to 
write  to  her  and  to  Mrs.  Batten  and  to  Emily  soon. 

Give  my  loving  regards  to  your  own  mother. 

The  idea  so  picturesquely  presented  here  was  put  into  a 
kindred  shape  in  a  letter  addressed  a  month  afterwards 

26G.    TO  BISHOP  EWING. 

2  Forres  Street,  16th  April. 

.  .  .  The  revelation    is  both  objective  and  subjective. 

Christ  was  the  objective  revelation  of  the  Father;  but  we 

need  the  subjective  revelation,  which  consists  not  in  taking 

a  veil  off  the  Father,  but  in  removing  the  scales  from  our 


4S6  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1868. 

own  eyes.  Perhaps  the  objective  revelation  is  contained 
in  the  subjective.  To  them  who  are  without,  Avho  are  liv- 
ing in  the  flesh,  all  things  must  necessarily  be  in  parables. 

I  sympathise,  however,  with  the  demand  for  a  com- 
plete objectivity  in  God.  The  shadow  within  me  must 
always  keep  its  character  of  shadow,  leading  me  to  look 
outwards  for  the  substance.  I  desire  to  know  God 
as  really  (and  far  more)  as  I  know  a  man.  It  is  not 
merely  by  any  thoughts  of  Him  that  I  am  to  be  comforted 
and  strengthened  (though  I  expect  and  find  comfort  and 
strength  from  such  thoughts)  ;  I  desire  and  expect  an  actual 
putting  forth  of  His  own  hand,  a  direct  breathing  of  His 
own  love  upon  me.  It  is  said  in  Deuteronomy  that  Moses 
died  by  the  word  of  the  Lord.  The  Hebrew  for  word  also 
means  mouth,  and  hence  also  kiss  ;  so  the  Jewish  tradition 
is  that  Moses  died  by  the  kiss  of  God.  This  is  something 
more  than  knowing  God  is  love ;  and  I  should  like  to  receive 
all  the  sorrows  and  pains  of  life,  as  it  were,  by  the  kiss  of 
God. 

My  dear  Bishop,  I  have  done  you  little  service  by  this 
letter;1  but  receive  it  lovingly,  as  from  a  friend  who  loves 
you — a  friend  who  would  pray  and  hope  before  long  to  die 
by  the  kiss  of  God. 

Affectionate  regards  to  Lady  Alice.  T.  Erskine. 

It  was  to  the  same  correspondent  that  Mr.  Erskine  at  this 
time  wrote  : — 

267.    TO  BISHOP  EWING. 

I  LOOK  with  great  sadness  on  the  fading  away  in  so  many 
minds  of  the   Christianity  of  our   childhood.     Take  the 

1  A  greater  service  had  already  been  rendered.  Writing  to  Mr.  Erskine 
seven  years  before  this  time,  Bishop  Ewing  says  : — "  I  owe  you  more,  dear 
sir,  than  to  any  man  alive.  T  owe  yon  belief  in  God,— in  God  as  my  and 
our  true  Friend  and  Father." — Memoirs,  p.  327. 


MT.  79- 


BISHOP  E  WING.  487 


great  mass  of  minds  in  whom  it  is  fading,  can  we  in  any 
sense  say  that  it  is  like  the  vanishing  of  narrow  Judaism 
before  the  early  dawn  of  the  gospel  1 — the  phase  which  St. 
Paul  saw  and  has  so  vividly  pictured  to  us.  It  seems  to 
me  we  are  more  and  more  coming  to  this  issue — Has  God 
revealed  Himself  to  us  as  one  whose  "  ways  are  not  as  our 
ways,  nor  His  thoughts  as  our  thoughts  "  1  or,  Do  we  evolve 
out  of  our  own  inward  light  the  existence  of  One  who  per- 
sonifies our  own  highest  conceptions  of  moral  good  ] 

For  my  own  part,  I  am  deeply  thankful  to  the  Calvinian 
atmosphere  one  has  insensibly  breathed  from  childhood  for 
predisposing  the  mind  in  favour  of  the  first,  although  by  its 
unscriptural  excesses  unhappily  contributing  to  the  spread- 
ing reaction  in  favour  of  the  latter.  T.  Erskine. 

268.    TO  THE  SAME. 

2  Forres  Street,  Edinburgh,  May  26,  1868. 

Me.  Campbell  came  here  yesterday  to  attend  a  great 
dinner  given  to  Dr.  Wylie  of  Carluke,  on  the  fiftieth 
anniversary  of  his  ministerial  appointment  to  that  parish. 
I  went  with  Mr.  Campbell,  and  Mr.  Story  of  Eoseneath 
was  the  proposer  of  a  toast,  in  which  Mr.  Campbell's  name 
and  mine  were  joined,  and  received  honourable  treatment 
from  the  proposer,  who  is  a  very  able  man,  and  who  seems 
very  anxious  to  make  the  Church  of  Scotland  understand 
the  sin  and  blunder  she  committed  in  regard  to  Mr.  Camp- 
bell thirty-eight  years  ago.  It  would  be  a  right  thing  for 
her  to  rescind  her  act  of  deposition  even  now,  if  she  really 
sinned  in  passing  that  act.  Dr.  Norman  Macleod  was 
expected  at  the  dinner,  but  he  did  not  come.  His  brother 
was  there,  whom  I  like  very  much. 

All  that  class  of  men  condemn  the  deposition  of  Mr. 
Campbell.     And  yet  I  believe  that  neither  in  the  Church  of 


4S8  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1869. 

Scotland  nor  in  the  Church  of  England  is  the  root  of  the 
question  then  agitated  understood  to  this  day. 

Is  a  man  to  become  a  child  of  God,  or  is  a  man  a  child  of 
God  in  virtue  of  his  being  a  man  1  What  is  the  meaning 
of  the  name  of  God  proclaimed  to  Moses  1 — "  The  Lord 
God,  merciful  and  gracious,  forgiving  iniquity,  transgression, 
and  sin,  without  clearing  the  guilty."  An  inexhaustible 
love  which  punishes,  because  the  purposes  of  love  can  no 
otherwise  be  accomplished.  A  love  which  eternally  desires 
our  sympathy  because  such  sympathy  must  be  our  holiness 
and  blessedness,  is  the  nature  ofGodTand  the  explanation 
of  all  His  dealings  with  us. — Ever  yours, 

T.  Erskine. 

One  of  the  earliest  letters  of  1869  was  addressed  to  Mr. 
Carlyle,  from  whom  came  the  following  remarkable 
reply : — 

MR.  CARLYLE  TO  MR.  ERSKINE. 

Chelsea,  12th  Feb.  1869. 
Dear  Mr.  Erskine, — I  was  most  agreeably  surprised 
by  the  sight  of  your  handwriting  again,  so  kind,  so  wel- 
come !  The  letters  are  as  firm  and  honestly  distinct  as 
ever ; — the  mind  too,  in  spite  of  its  frail  environments,  as 
clear,  plumb-up,  calmly  expectant,  as  in  the  best  days : 
right  so ;  so  be  it  with  us  all,  till  we  quit  this  dim  sojourn, 
now  grown  so  lonely  to  us,  and  our  change  come  !  "  Our 
Father  which  art  in  heaven,  Hallowed  be  Thy  name,  Thy 
will  be  done;" — what  else  can  we  say1?  The  other  night, 
in  my  sleepless  tossings  about,  which  were  growing  more 
and  more  miserable,  these  words,  that  brief  and  grand 
Prayer,  came  strangely  into  my  mind,  with  an  altogether 
new  emphasis ;  as  if  written,  and  shining  for  me  in  mild 
pure  splendour,  on  the  black  bosom  of  the  Night  there ; 


;et.8o.  FROM  MR.   CARLYLE.  489 


when  I,  as  it  were,  read  them  word  by  word, — with  a  sud- 
den check  to  my  imperfect  wanderings,  with  a  sudden  soft- 
ness of  composure  which  was  much  unexpected.  Not  for 
perhaps  thirty  or  forty  years  had  I  once  formally  repeated 
that  Prayer ; — nay,  I  never  felt  before  how  intensely  the 
voice  of  Man's  soul  it  is;  the  inmost  aspiration  of  all 
that  is  high  and  pious  in  poor  Human  Nature;  right 
worthy  to  be  recommended  with  an  "  After  this  manner 
pray  ye." 

I  am  very  thankful  that  you  went  to  see  poor  Betty ; 
she  is  one  of  the  most  venerable  human  figures  now  known 
to  me  in  the  world.  I  called  there,  the  first  thing  after  my 
bit  of  surgery  in  the  neighbourhood,  end  of  July  last ;  I 
seemed  to  have  only  one  other  visit  to  make  in  all  Scot- 
land,— and  I  made  only  one.  The  sight  of  poor  Betty, 
mournful  as  it  is,  and  full  of  mournfullest  memories  to  me, 
always  does  me  good.  So  far  as  I  could  any  way  learn, 
she  is  well  enough  in  her  humble  thrifty  economics,  etc.  :  if 
otherwise  at  any  time,  I  believe  you  understand  that  help 
from  this  quarter  would  be  a  sacred  duty  to  me. 

I  am  still  able  to  walk,  though  I  do  it  on  compulsion 
merely,  and  without  pleasure  except  as  in  work  done.  It 
is  a  great  sorrow  that  you  now  get  fatigued  so  soon,  and 
have  not  your  old  privilege  in  this  respect ; — I  only  hope 
you  perhaps  do  not  quite  so  indispensably  need  it  as  I ; 
with  me  it  is  the  key  to  sleep,  and  in  fact  the  one  medicine 
(often  ineffectual,  and  now  gradually  oftener)  that  I  ever 
could  discover  for  this  poor  clay  tabernacle  of  mine.  I 
still  keep  working,  after  a  weak  sort ;  but  can  now  do  little, 
often  almost  nothing; — all  my  little  "  work  "  is  henceforth 
private  (as  I  calculate) ;  a  setting  of  my  poor  house  in 
order  ;  which  I  would  fain  finish  in  time,  and  occasionally 
fear  I  shan't.  Dear  Mr.  Erskine,  good  be  ever  with  you. 
Were  my  hand  as  little  shaky  as  it  is  to-day,  I  would  write 


490  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1869. 

to  you  oftener.     A  word  from  you  will  ever  be  welcome 
here  1 — Yours  sincerely  and  much,  T.  CARLYLE. 

269.    TO  THOMAS  CARLYLE,  ESQ. 

9  Albyn  Place,  19th  March  1869. 
Dear  Mr.  Carlyle, — Since  ever  I  received  your  last 
letter  I  have  had  a  desire  to  thank  you  for  it.  I  felt  it  to 
be  a  word  in  season,  a  word  of  comfort  and  hope,  to  which 
I  was  thankful  to  find  myself  able  to  respond.  Assuredly 
it  is  a  great  deliverance  from  the  bleak  solitude  of  life,  and 
from  its  weary  turnings  and  tossings,  to  discover  that  we 
have  ever  within  our  reach  One  without  whom  not  a  sparrow 
ialleth  to  the  ground,  to  whom  we  can  say  "  Our  Father 
which  art  in  heaven "  with  any  assurance  that  He  really 
regards  us  as  His  children,  and  has  the  purpose  of  training 
us  into  a  participation  of  His  own  character,  by  all  that 
path  of  life  which  He  appoints  for  us.  And  I  do  indeed 
feel  that  the  petitions  with  which  the  prayer  commences 
express  the  deepest  aspirations  of  man's  being,  the  principles 
in  which  it  would  be  his  righteousness  and  blessedness  to 
live.  There  seems  as  if  there  were  a  power  in  the  very 
words  to  quiet  the  troubled  spirit,  and  if  we  at  all  succeed 
in  realising  the  embracing  presence  of  Him  whom  we  call 
our  Father,  we  cannot  fail  of  finding  ourselves  helped  and 
comforted  and  lifted  up  into  a  holier  and  purer  atmosphere. 
— Dear  Mr.  Carlyle,  yours  with  much  regard, 

T.  Erskine. 

270.    TO  MISS  WEDGWOOD. 

9  Albyn  Place,  13th  March  1869. 
Well-beloved  S., — The  sight  of  your  handwriting  is 
always  agreeable  to  me,  and  it  is  more  especially  so  at 
this  time,  coming  as  it  does  from  Maurice's  house.     Your 


jet.  80.  REV.  DR.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL.  491 


report  of  him,  however,  is   not  very  satisfactory.     I   am 
afraid  that  he  has  actually  worn  himself  out. 

To  my  mind  a  thought  is  valuable  in  proportion  to  its 
capacity  of  becoming  more  precious  the  longer  I  know  it. 
I  always  expect  to  understand  his  books  better  on  a  second 
reading,  and  to  find  out  more  of  their  secret — for  every 
man  has  a  secret,  something  which  distinguishes  him  from 
every  other  human  being.  It  is  that  critical  character  of 
your  mind  which  demands  novelty ;  it  is  like  that  taste 
which  would  require  a  different  dinner  every  day  in  the 
year.  I  wish  I  had  some  book  to  read.  I  have  been 
trying  some  of  De  Tocqueville,  which  makes  me  like  the 
man  very  much. 

I  heard  Keble's  Life  read,  but  I  felt  it  waterish.  The 
entire  want  of  any  theology  provokes  me.  Give  my  loving 
regards  to  your  host. — Ever  affectionately  yours, 

T.  Erskine. 

We  have  had  Jowett  here  lecturing1  and  preaching. 

271.    TO  THE  REV.  J.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL,  D.D. 

9  Albyn  Place,  5th  April  1SG9. 
Beloved  Friend, — I  have  had  much  pleasure  in  reading 
the  Spectator's  review  of  your  "Bread  of  Life,"  which  will, 
doubtless,  introduce  it  to  the  acquaintance  of  many,  and  I 
feel  assured  that  very  few  works  published  in  our  day  are 
fitted  to  give  more  help  to  their  readers.  I  have  had  it 
read  over  to  me  in  its  new  form,  with  increased  satisfaction. 
I  am  particularly  struck  by  the  parallelism  which  you 
indicate  between  the  mass  and  imputed  righteousness  in 
the  respective  places  which  they  hold  in  the  minds  of 
Romanists  and  Calvinists.     But  I  like  it  chiefly  on  account 

1  Mr.  Jowett  delivered  two  Lectures  on  Education  before  the  Members 
of  the  Philosophical  Institution. 


492  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1S69. 

of  the  help  it  gives  to  those  who  are  desiring  to  feed  on 
the  bread  which  came  down  from  heaven.  That  is  what  I 
desire  for  myself  and  my  brethren,  that  thus  we  may  be 
continually  growing  into  a  greater  conformity  to  our 
Father's  will,  growing  in  filial  trust  and  love  and  joy,  for  I 
believe  in  the  truth  of  the  word,  "  The  joy  of  the  Lord  is 
your  strength."  I  need  this  very  much,  and  I  desire  to 
give  God  the  glory  of  rejoicing  in  Him,  and  to  be  delivered 
from  the  weakness  which  the  want  of  that  joy  produces. 
There  is  a  great  deal  in  the  119th  Psalm  which  expresses 
either  what  I  feel,  or  seek  to  feel.  "  Thou  art  my  portion,  0 
Lord,"  "  Thy  hands  have  made  me  and  fashioned  me ;  give 
me  understanding,  that  I  may  learn  Thy  commandments." 
I  know  that  He  is  very  nigh  me,  and  that  He  hath  said,  "  I 
will  never  leave  thee  nor  forsake  thee."  You  do  not  forget 
me  in  your  prayers.  Give  my  love  to  .  .  .  . — Ever 
affectionately  yours,  T.  Erskine. 

272.    TO  THE  REV.  J.  M'LEOD  CAMPBELL,  D.D. 

127  George  Street,  \%th  May  1869. 

Dear  Mr.  Campbell, — It  is  indeed  most  interesting  to 
think  that  you  are  to  spend  your  remaining  days  on  the 
banks  of  the  Gareloch,  and  specially  on  the  Roseneath 
side,  which  still  remains  as  a  type  of  ideal  beauty  in  my 
memory. 

I  wonder  whether  the  Church  of  Scotland  will  not  at 
last  take  the  step  of  reponing  you,  when  the  Glasgow 
University  confers  the  degree  of  D.D.  on  you,  and  you  are 
invited  as  an  honoured  guest  at  the  Moderator's  dinner. 
Most  of  your  prosecutors  are  either  dead  or  in  the  Free 
Church,  and  the  obligation  of  the  Confession  of  Faith 
on  the  consciences  of  clergy  as  well  as  of  laity  is  much 
relaxed.  .  .  . 


jet.  80.  DEAN  STANLEY.  493 


273.    TO  LADY  AUGUSTA  STANLEY. 

127  George  Street,  15th  June  1869. 

Beloved  Lady, — The  remembrance  of  the  reviving  visit 
of  you  and  the  Dean  is  most  pleasant  to  me,  especially  when 
connected  with  the  hope  of  its  repetition,  before  very  long. 
I  have  sent  you  a  photograph  of  Madame  Vernet,  which 
I  think  you  will  like  as  a  Swiss  pendant  to  Lady  Christian 
Erskine,  and  as  a  discovery  of  the  antecedents  of  Madame 
de  Stael.  She  had  the  breadth  of  our  Cardross  friends  in 
the  higher  cultivation  and  refinement,  but  without  their 
humour,  which,  however  was  not  missed  in  her.  There  are 
some  people  who  seem  complete  without  it,  and  she  was 
one  of  them. 

Tell  the  Dean  that  I  have  been  hearing  Bright's  Speeches 
read  with  great  interest  and  admiration.  I  wonder  whether 
he  is  a  man  really  and  sincerely  desirous  of  doing  what  is 
right,  and  whether  the  frequent  introduction  of  such  words 
as  humanity  and  justice  and  Christianity  indicates  some- 
thing real  in  his  heart  and  conscience.  I  have  thought 
this  night  a  good  deal  about  the  House  of  Lords,  and  what 
course  they  may  choose  for  themselves.  They  cannot 
throw  out  the  Bill  without  doing  harm,  and  I  trust  that 
even  those  of  them  who  may  see  an  abstract  lightness  in 
doing  so  will  yet  make  allowance  for  the  hardness  of  the 
hearts  of  the  people. — Ever  affectionately  yours, 

T.  Erskine. 

274.    TO  DEAN  STANLEY. 

127  George  St.,  Edinburgh,  17  th  June  18G9. 
My  DEAR  Dean, — I  have  been  listening  to  the  speech 
of  the  Bishop  of  Peterborough,  and  though  my  own  mind 
had  been  to  a  considerable  degree  made  up  as  to  the  general 


494  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 

rightness  of  the  Bill,  I  yet  could  not  refuse  the  consent  both 
of  my  reason  and  conscience  to  much  which  he  said.  I  do 
not  believe  that  with  the  modifications  which  it  is  sure  to 
undergo,  before  it  becomes  law,  it  will  conciliate  either  the 
Catholic  priesthood  or  laity,  aud  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  Protestants,  to  a  man,  must  feel  themselves  aggrieved, 
and  they  would  like  that  England  should  be  taught  to 
know  how  much  she  has  owed  to  them  in  time  past,  and 
how  she  was  now  slighting  those  through  whose  faithful 
adherence  she  had  the  firmest  hold  of  Ireland.  There 
must  be  left  some  establishment  and  endowment,  else  in 
the  rural  districts,  the  support  of  the  clergy  being  thrown 
on  the  landed  proprietors,  an  inferior  class  of  men  would 
almost  certainly  be  introduced,  and  lower  the  general  stan- 
dard both  of  Christian  character  and  intelligence  amongst 
the  people.  It  is  a  very  grave  question,  which  must  be 
considered  not  only  in  the  large,  but  in  all  its  details,  in 
order  to  its  being  rightly  judged.  .  .  .  Any  man  who 
meets  this  cpiestion  simply  as  the  member  of  a  party  ought 
to  be  hanged  forthwith.  .  .  . — Very  truly  yours, 

T.  Erskine. 

PROFESSOR  LORIMER  TO  DR.  HANNA. 

1  Bruntsfield  Crescent,  20th  Feb.  1S77. 
My  dear  Dr.  Hanna, — You  ask  me  to  tell  you  the  par- 
ticulars of  the  interesting  meeting  between  Mr.  Erskine 
and  Monsieur  Prevost-Paradol  at  which  I  had  the  privilege 
to  be  present,  and  I  shall  do  so  most  willingly,  so  far  as  I 
can  remember  them.  It  came  about  in  this  wise.  In  the 
winter  of  1869  the  Directors  of  the  Philosophical  Institu- 
tion wished  M.  Paradol  to  lecture  to  them  on  the  social 
and  political  aspects  of  French  Society,  in  which  he  then 
played  so  conspicuous  a  part,  and,  as  from  a  variety  of 
causes,  to  which  I  need  not  refer,  I  was  in  the  habit  of 


PROFESSOR  LORIMER  TO  DR.  HANNA.  495 

corresponding  with  him,  they  requested  me  to  arrange  the 
matter  for  them. 

I  gladly  embraced  the  opportunity  of  making  his  per- 
sonal acquaintance,  and  invited  him  to  pay  us  a  visit. 
When  he  was  staying  in  my  house  I  took  him  to  call  on 
Mr.  Erskine,  then  certainly  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
and  interesting  men  in  Edinburgh.  Strangely  different  as 
they  were,  I  felt  that  they  would  sympathise,  and  I  knew 
that  they  had  many  subjects  of  common  interest.  I  intro- 
duced M.  Paradol  as  a  friend  of  the  De  Broglies,  who  could 
give  Mr.  Erskine  the  latest  news  of  the  circle  of  friends  to 
whom  he  was  bound  by  so  many  associations.  For  a  time 
Mr.  Erskine  talked  to  him  about  the  old  days  at  Coppet, 
and  his  recollections  of  Madame  de  Stael.  Very  soon, 
however,  as  his  wont  was,  he  diverged  into  the  subjects 
which  continually  occupied  his  thoughts,  and  he  did  so  in 
a  manner  which  at  first  was  somewhat  startling.  "  As  a 
member  of  the  liberal  party,  M.  Paradol,"  he  said,  "  your 
religious  opinions  are  probably  not  of  a  very  positive  kind." 
M.  Paradol  assured  him,  in  a  very  reverential  tone,  that 
his  religious  point  of  view  was  less  negative  than  that  of 
many  of  his  countrymen,  and  that  if  his  creed  was  not  very 
definite  he  held  it  very  sincerely.  Mr.  Erskine's  face  lighted 
up  with  that  expression  of  sublime  earnestness  which 
every  one  who  knew  him  must  remember.  He  felt  that  he 
had  a  sympathetic  listener,  whose  position  enabled  him,  if 
he  chose,  to  carry  his  message  where  it  was  much  needed, 
and  to  proclaim  it  in  words  that  would  be  listened  to,  and 
he  determined  not  to  miss  his  opportunity. 

He  poured  out  to  him  his  own  deep  and  simple  faith ; 
he  cleared  away  the  needless  superfluities  with  which 
tradition  and  dogmatism  have  obscured  Christianity ;  and 
told  him  that  pretty  nearly  all  that  Christ  Himself  had 
enjoined  on  us  was  that  we  should  love  God.     "  Love  God," 


496  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 

he  repeated  over  and  over  again,  "  that  is  about  the  whole 
of  it."  I  cannot  of  course  recall  what  he  said,  and  if  I 
could  it  would  be  needless  to  you.  It  was  the  doctrine  he 
taught  us  all ;  but  I,  who  knew  him  much  less  than  you 
did,  never  heard  him  put  it  with  so  much  power  and  sim- 
plicity. Paradol  was  very  much  struck  with  it,  and  with 
the  man  altogether.  He  did  not  know  what  to  make  of 
him.  When  we  got  down  into  the  street  he  was  eloquent 
in  his  expressions  of  his  wonder  and  admiration.  I  had 
told  him  before  who  he  was,  but  he  insisted  on  hearing  it 
over  again.  That  he  was  a  member  of  the  Bar  who  had 
succeeded  to  a  good  family  estate,  and  that  his  "  two  books" 
were  Plato  and  the  Bible,  was  all  that  I  could  tell  him. 
He  was  bewildered  and  awe-struck  at  the  appearance  of  a 
personage  so  far  elevated  above  the  negative  and  colourless 
conception  which  he  had  formed  of  an  English  countrv 
gentleman.  He  was  so  simple,  so  considerate,  and  even 
indulgent,  and  yet  he  was  so  dignified  and  authoritative, 
and  he  dismissed  him  with  something  so  like  an  apostolic 
benediction  that  he  could  not  get  over  it.  When  he  left  us  a 
few  days  after  on  the  pier  of  Leith — for,  unlike  a  French- 
man, he  went  up  to  London  in  mid-winter  by  sea, — he 
thanked  me  specially  for  taking  him  to  see  "  that  kind  of 
old  prophet."  After  Mr.  Erskine's  death  he  wrote  me  the 
letter  which  I  send  you.  It  was  one  of  the  last  which  I 
received  from  him,  and  as  it  will  interest  a  wider  circle 
than  that  to  which  Mr.  Erskine  was  known,  you  may  per- 
haps like  to  publish  it. — Yours  most  truly, 

J.  LORIMER. 

M.  PARADOL  TO  PROFESSOR  LORIMER. 

Paris,  Wednesday,  April  6th. 
My  DEAR  Lorimer, — I  am  very  thankful  for  your  kind 
letter,  and  also  for  the  interesting  papers  which  you  have 


/£T.  81.  MRS.  MACHAR.  497 


sent  to  me.  The  Scotsman  and  the  Spectator  on  our  admir- 
able Erskine  were  most  welcome,  and  I  have  remarked  in 
the  Spectator  a  letter  which  I  am  inclined  to  attribute  to 
you.  We  have  had  and  we  have  still  here  many  good  and 
even  religious  men,  but  what  is  rare  and  original,  quite 
Scotch  and  anti-French,  is  a  life  so  unearthly  and  spiritual 
as  that  of  Erskine  spent  out  of  the  Church ;  when  a  man 
is  religious  here,  he  is  either  a  member  of  the  clergy  or  an 
outside  political  rather  than  religious  defender,  like  our 
Montalembert  and  Falloux.  I  am  happy  to  learn  that 
you  are  well ;  we  are  still  in  the  uncertainty  here  about 
everything,  as  well  as  about  my  own  affairs.  Afraid  of 
electoral  reforms,  and  of  electoral  agitation,  the  Emperor 
and  his  ministry  have  thrown  themselves  into  the  plebiscite 
absurdity  and  the  constituent  agitation,  which  is  a  dread- 
ful mess,  still  more  puzzling  and  dangerous  than  the  Pechey 
injustice. — With  my  best  love  to  all,  believe  me  ever  yours 
sincerely,  P.  Paradol. 

275.    TO  MRS.  MACHAR. 

Edinburgh,  Feb.  1,  1870. 
There  are  few  living  now  whose  words  are  so  welcome 
to  my  heart  as  yours,  and  in  whose  hopes  and  sorrows  I 
feel  such  a  readiness  to  sympathise.  I  am  become  very- 
weak  in  body,  and  have  probably  a  good  deal  of  suffering 
before  me,  but  my  chief  burden  is  the  remembrance  of  past 
sins.  Although  I  believe  them  forgiven,  yet  they  often 
come  between  me  and  the  face  of  my  heavenly  Father.  I 
do  not  doubt  His  love,  but  I  desire  to  have  a  more  living 
sense  of  it.  I  would  say  to  Him,  "  Be  not  silent  to  me." 
"  Say  unto  my  soul,  I  am  thy  salvation."  I  need  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  quicken  my  cold  affections,  and  to  help  me  to 
apprehend  what  is  contained  in  the  unspeakable  gift  of 
Christ.     The  assurance  that  "  God  afflicteth  not  willingly, 

-  I 


498 


LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


1870. 


but  for  our  profit,  that  we  may  be  partakers  of  His  holi- 
ness," is  a  great  support.  He  brought  us  into  being  that 
He  might  educate  us  into  the  likeness  of  His  own  Son. 
This  is,  I  believe,  His  unchangeable  purpose  concerning  us 
all,  a  blessed  purpose  surely ;  and  when  we  think  of  the 
manifestation  of  His  purpose,  Jesus  Christ,  we  can  scarcely 
conceive  anything  lower  or  less  to  be  intended.  This  is  a 
rest. — Yours,  etc.,  T.  Erskine. 


This  letter  was  written  a  short  time  before  his  death. 
The  answer  to  it  was  read  to  him  only  ten  days  before  the 
close,  and  was  the  last  letter,  save  a  note  from  Professor 
Lushington,  which  he  was  able  to  listen  to. 


ILLNESS.  499 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

The  Close. 

During  the  spring  and  summer  of  1868  Mr.  Erskine's 
health  had  on  the  whole  improved.  •  There  was  one  short 
but  solemn  interruption.  He  was  suddenly  threatened  with 
a  malady  which  he  knew  must,  if  unchecked,  terminate 
quickly  and  painfully  in  death.  He  faced  the  likelihood 
with  a  calmness  and  courage  the  more  remarkable  that  he 
shrank  from  pain,  and  had  always  a  dread  of  the  act  of  dying. 
"  I  should  not  like  to  die,"  he  had  once  said  to  a  friend,  "  in 
a  frenzy  of  pain,  all  the  decencies  of  a  death-bed  lost  sight 
of  in  physical  agony."  Now  this  seemed  impending.  As 
his  niece  Mrs.  Paterson  sat  by  him  reading  those  parts  of 
the  Bible  which  he  indicated,  and  while  he  awaited  the 
effect  of  the  treatment,  he  said  to  her,  "  It  is  a  very  solemn 
pause,  but  I  can  trust  Him  absolutely.  Still,  I  should  have 
liked  my  death  not  to  have  been  a  painful  one,  but  to  have 
passed  away  with  my  door  open  and  my  friends  coming 
in  and  out."  The  treatment  was  successful,  the  malady 
was  checked, — but  these  words  were  remembered  when 
the  last  illness  came,  when  all  was  done,  and  done  success- 
fully, to  carry  out  his  desire. 

Soon  as  any  capacity  for  work  returned  he  was  once 
more  at  his  writings,  aided  alternately  by  his  two  most 
competent  and  devoted  lady  friends.  By  his  residing 
latterly  so  much  in  Edinburgh,  the  ties  of  an  early  friend- 


500  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1870. 

ship  with  his  cousin  George  Dundas  (Lord  Manor)  had  heen 
drawn  closer.  They  were  seeing  each  other  daily,  when 
death  suddenly  stept  in  and  took  his  friend  from  his  side, 
— a  loss  felt  by  Mr.  Erskine  deeply,  and  felt  to  the  end. 
There  was  yet  another  parting,  with  his  dear  friend  James 
Mackenzie,  who  died  a  few  months  later.  The  last 
meeting  here  was  singularly  impressive  to  those  who 
witnessed  it.  Mr.  Mackenzie  was  just  dying ;  he  sat  in 
bed  with  eyes  closed,  insensible,  his  head  laid  back  upon 
the  pillow,  his  silver  locks  floating  as  in  a  pale  light  over 
his  forehead,  his  finely  chiselled  features,  always  beautiful, 
now  set  in  the  marble  beauty  of  death.  Sent  for  to  bid 
him  a  last  adieu,  Mr.  Erskine  paused  as  he  entered  the 
room,  stood  for  a  few  moments  absorbed,  gazing  upon  the 
sight,  then  gently  approached,  put  his  lips  to  those  of  the 
dying,  and,  not  a  word  spoken,  withdrew.  Coining  down 
to  the  dining-room  to  his  niece,  who  had  accompanied  him, 
"  he  looked  round  the  room,"  she  tells  us,  "  as  if  saying 
good-bye  to  it  too,  then  told  me  of  the  gentle  leave-taking, 
saying  with  that  peculiar  and  tender  smile  he  always  had  for 
James  Mackenzie,  '  his  death  is  lovely,  like  himself  " 

For  many  months  at  this  period  Mr.  Erskine  suffered 
from  an  affection  of  the  heart  which  gave  rise  not  only 
to  great  bodily  discomfort,  but  to  much  mental  depression. 
At  times,  when  under  this  depression,  a  conscience  always 
very  sensitive  magnified  some  trivial  fancied  offences  of 
the  past  till  he  became  most  unhappy  in  the  retrospect. 
Those  who  saw  him  at  such  times,  and  listened  to  his 
bitter  self-condemnation,  might  have  misjudged,  as  if  his 
faith  in  God,  his  trust  in  his  Saviour,  his  confidence  in 
the  largeness  of  the  divine  love,  had  misgiven.  Nothing 
was  further  from  the  truth.  Never,  not  in  his  hours  of 
greatest  darkness,  did  he  doubt  or  distrust  his  God  and 
Saviour,  or  feel  uncertainty  as  to  his  personal  relationship 


;et.  8i.  LAST  DA  YS.  501 

with  Him.  It  was  but  the  action  of  a  diseased  sensibility. 
This  was  manifested  in  the  most  striking  manner  at  the 
close,  when  the  burden  and  pressure  of  disease  were 
removed. 

On  Thursday  the  10th  of  March  1870  he  drove  out  as 
usual  into  the  country.  He  looked  admiringly  on  the 
opening  buds, — "swelling  into  life,"  he  said,  "just  as  he 
was  passing  out  of  it."  His  niece,  who  accompanied  him, 
reminded  him  that  his  sister,  as  she  watched  it  from  her 
window  at  Morningside,  used  to  call  spring  that  "  yearly 
miracle."  "  Yes,"  he  said,  "  I  am  not  passing  out  of  life  ; 
the  great  miracle  of  entrance  into  fuller  life  is  near — very 
near  perhaps."  He  then  asked  Keble's  Morning  Hymn  to  be 
repeated,  going  before  at  times,  and  saying  at  the  close,  "  I 
forgot  it  was  so  beautiful."  That  evening  he  was  calm, 
though  silent.  During  the  night  he  had  more  sleep  than 
usual,  and  slept  quietly.  But  at  breakfast-time  a  cough 
brought  up  some  blood.  He  had  suddenly  broken  a  blood- 
vessel. The  relief  to  head  and  heart  was  immediate, 
but  he  felt  that  his  hours  were  numbered.  "  There  was 
something  majestic,"  Mrs.  Paterson  tells  us,1  "  in  his  look 
and  tone,"  as  he  sat  up  in  bed  taking,  as  he  thought,  his 
last  farewells  of  those  around.  "You  must  not  try  to 
keep  me,"  he  said  quite  cheerfully,  but  solemnly.  But 
when  Dr.  John  Brown,  who  came  in  as  he  repeated  the 
words,  said,  "  You  will  take  this,  dear  sir ;  we  cannot  keep 
you  when  God  sends  for  you,"  Mr.  Erskine  answered,  "You 
are  right;  give  it  me,  I  will  wait  His  time."  Then  pre- 
sently he  said  to  the  doctor,  with  a  touch  of  his  old 
humour,  "I  am  better  now, — if  you  had  not  given  me 
that!"  then  added  solemnly,  "His  time."     "Thy  time,  0 

1  The  narrative  which  follows  is  derived  from  full  and  interesting  records 
preserved  by  his  niece  and  by  Miss  Gourlay,  who,  along  with  his  nephew, 
were  his  close  and  loving  attendants  by  night  and  by  day  on  till  the  close. 


502  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1870. 

Lord."  All  that  day  the  relieved  heart  seemed  to  leave 
his  spirit  free,  and  the  grand  cairn,  and  the  loving  mes- 
sages to  his  relations,  remembering  each,  and  suiting  the 
message  to  each,  were  wonderful. 

Turning  in  the  course  of  the  day  to  Miss  Gourlay,  he 
said  to  her,  "  I  want  the  paper  in  the  tin  box — the  one 
on  Education  and  Probation — to  be  printed  separately  as 
a  tract,  and  I  want  it  to  be  prefaced  by  these  words : 
'This  principle  of  Education  lies  at  the  very  basis  of 
the  Gospel,  for  it  contains  in  it,  or  expresses,  the  ever- 
lasting purpose  of  God  towards  us,  to  make  us  partakers 
of  His  own  righteousness.'  "  x 

Sunday  the  13th. — Between  services  the  Rev.  Mr.  Sand- 
ford  came  and  administered  the  Holy  Communion.  His 
nephew  and  niece  and  Miss  Gourlay  partook  of  it  along 
with  him.  He  watched  as  Mr.  Sandford  went  up  to  each, 
evidently  praying  for  them.  With  folded  hands,  and 
following  the  service  with  deep  feeling,  he  received  the 
Sacrament,  saying  at  the  close,  "  Oh  wonderful !  my  Lord 
and  my  God  ! " 

In  the  evening  his  kind  friend  Dr.  John  Brown  came 
in,  for  the  fourth  or  fifth  time.  Mr.  Erskine  brightened 
up  and  said,  "  Well,  here  I  am  still,  you  see."  Dr.  Brown 
said  that  many  were  anxiously  asking  for  him,  and  "just 
now  I  have  been  talking  about  you  with  Lushington." 
"Ah,  Lushington,"  he  said,  with  a  smile,  and  then  re- 
peated a  Greek  sentence.2  We  asked  the  meaning  :  "  Not 
only  Nature's  finest  workmanship,  but  made  of  Nature's 
finest  clay.     My  loving  farewell  to  him." 

Monday  the  14th. — All  day  very  peaceful.  Several 
friends  came  in  at  his  "  open  door,"  and  for  each  he  had 
just  the  right  word. 

1  See  Appendix,  No.  V. 

*  Mr.  Lushington  was  Professor  of  Greek  in  the  University  of  Glasgow. 


mt.Si.  LAST  DA  VS.  503 

Tuesday  the  15th. — A  day  of  much  bodily  uneasiness. 
Throughout  indeed  there  was  much  physical  restlessness. 
His  position  had  to  be  shifted  frequently,  and  many  little 
services  to  be  rendered.  When  some  of  these  were  not 
rendered  as  promptly  or  as  efficiently  as  he  desired,  his 
patience  for  the  moment  failed,  but,  instantly  recovering, 
with  the  utmost  grace  he  craved  forgiveness. 

Often  and  often  did  he  say  to  those  who  were  trying  to 
soothe  his  bodily  sufferings,  "  I  am  very  grateful.  I  am 
very  much  obliged.  I  thank  you  all  for  Jesus  Christ's 
sake."  Frequently  on  such  occasions  one  or  other  of 
the  two  passages  was  repeated.  "  If  ye  then,  being  evil, 
know  how  to  give  good  gifts  to  your  children,  how  much 
more  will  your  Heavenly  Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
them  that  ask  Him,"  and  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it 
unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren,  ye  have  done 
it  unto  Me."  "  Wonderful  words,"  he  added  as  he  recited 
the  last  of  these  verses — "  what  exquisite  beauty  in 
them — what  tenderness !" 

Wednesday  arid  Thursday. — Less  restlessness,  and  always 
the  same  steadfast  trust,  calm  peace,  and  holy  joy. 
Whispered  words  coming  ever  and  anon  from  his  lips, 
almost  always  words  of  Holy  Scripture — very  seldom  his 
own — and  so  long  as  strength  lasted,  he  repeated  each 
verse  from  beginning  to  end.  Among  those  most  fre- 
quently thus  repeated  were — "  God  so  loved  the  world," 
etc. ;  "  God  commended  His  love  towards  us,  in  that  while 
we  were  yet  sinners,  Christ  died  for  us;"  "He  tasted 
death  for  every  man;"  "The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  his 
Son  cleanseth  from  all  sin ; "  "  He  hath  made  Him  to  be 
sin  for  us,  who  knew  no  sin,  that  we  might  be  made  the 
righteousness  of  God  in  Him ; "  "  Fear  not,  for  I  am  with 
thee,"  etc. ;  "  Call  upon  me  in  the  day  of  trouble ;  I  will 
deliver    thee,   and    thou   shalt    glorify  me ;"    "  Though    I 


504  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1870. 

walk  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  I  will 
fear  no  evil,  for  Thou  art  with  me,"  etc. 

The  Psalms  were  much  upon  his  lips.  For  more  than 
fifty  years  they  had  been  his  daily  study  and  delight,  the 
cadence  of  many  of  their  well-known  verses  the  softest, 
sublimest  music  to  his  ear.  And  now  they  refreshed  his 
soul  in  death.  The  20th,  25th,  26th,  27th,  31st,  32d, 
62d,  73d,  86th,  103d,  116th,  130th,  and  139th  were 
special  favourites  ;  recited  by  himself  with  deep  solemnity 
of  tone,  or,  when  voice  failed,  listened  to  and  re-echoed  as 
repeated  to  him  by  others. 

The  Sonship  and  the  Sacrifice  of  Jesus  Christ  were  now 
much  in  his  thoughts.  "  Lord  Jesus,  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  he 
said  over  and  over  again,  in  such  a  tone  of  earnest  rever- 
ence, love,  and  tenderness,  as  if  a  new  revelation  of  the 
meaning  and  preciousness  of  the  Incarnation  had  been 
given.  The  Divine  Sonship  was  contemplated  as  embodied 
in  the  person  of  Christ.  "  Jesus,  the  Son  of  God,"  he  was 
heard  to  whisper  to  himself,  "and  God;"  the  peculiar 
emphasis  laid  upon  the  and  indicating  the  current  of  his 
thoughts.  "  Say  words  of  God  to  me,"  he  once  said.  In 
answer  to  his  request,  the  words  which  for  weeks  before 
had  been  often  upon  his  own  lips,  were  repeated — "  This 
is  My  body,  broken  for  you,"  etc.  He  listened  and  was 
satisfied ;  very  marked  throughout  his  selection  of  those 
verses  which  speak  of  the  death  of  our  Redeemer  and 
its  results.  And  running  through  the  whole  was  the 
close  direct  sustained  communion  with  God,  breaking 
forth  in  expressions  like  these  : — "God,  my  God;  I  can 
trust  Him  utterly."  "  0  Lord  God,  heavenly  Father,  my 
heavenly  Father,  I  am  in  Thy  hands."  "  0  Lord,  how 
long1?  Grant  me  Thy  patience,  keep  not  silence."  "0 
Lord,  my  soul  longs  after  Thee."  "I  desire  to  do  Thy 
will — yes,  living  or  dying   to   be    the  Lord's."      "  Holy 


jet.  8 1.  LAST  DAYS.  505 

glorious  God  !  let  me  see  Thy  face — my  Lord  and  my 
God !" 

Being  laid  for  the  night  he  said,  "I  want  to  be  left 
alone ;  I  want  to  have  my  dealings  with  God ;  I  want 
that  to  be  done  with  first.  Done  with  !  it 's  never  done 
with ;  but  I  mean —  "  there  the  voice  failed.  He  put 
himself  evidently  to  sleep  with  a  sort  of  command  to 
himself,  "  Be  still  and  know  that  I  am  God." 

Friday  the  18th. — In  the  course  of  the  day  his  nephew 
writes  to  Miss  Wedgwood — 

"  My  dear  uncle  is  still  here,  and  though  not  suffering, 
it  is  a  long  weary  death,  but  most  peaceful  and  trustful. 
I  wish  you  were  here  to  see  it,  and  get  a  loving  look  and 
word.  If  many  loved  him  in  his  life,  more  would  love 
him  in  his  death.  All  his  words,  conscious  or  unconscious, 
are  expressions  of  love  to  God  and  man,  without  a  cloud. 
His  very  tones  are  so  gentle  and  loving.  As  he  has  spoken 
much  in  all  states  of  consciousness  and  unconsciousness, 
you  see  all  that  is  in  him,  and  I  believe  it  might  be  said, 
'  God  saw  that  it  was  good.' 

"  May  our  last  end  be  like  his.   .  .  ." 

Leaving  him  for  the  night  his  niece  kissed  him,  as 
she  thought  probably  for  the  last  time.  Bepeating  her 
name,  he  said,  "  Beloved,  love  to  your  uncle.  All's  well," 
and  then  fell  asleep. 

"A  loving  farewell  to  your  uncle "  had  been  the  first 
words  addressed  to  Mrs.  Paterson  on  the  preceding  Friday, 
when  death  seemed  imminent,  and  he  was  bidding  adieu 
to  those  around.  Day  after  day — again  and  again — he 
sent  messages  to  his  friend — "Dear  Mr.  Campbell,  my 
gratitude  to  him — beloved  Mr.  Campbell."  And  now  upon 
Friday  the  18th,  three  different  times  when  life  seemed 
fluttering  into  death,  his  niece  caught  the  words  addressed 
to  her,  "  Farewell — beloved — love  to  your  uncle." 


506  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  1870. 

Nor  was  it  by  direct  messages  alone  that  it  appeared 
how  present  his  absent  friend  was  to  his  thoughts.  As 
they  were  once  raising  him  in  his  bed  he  said — "  Do  it 
gently — with  the  gentleness  of  God.  Be  very  gentle 
with  me.  There 's  Mr.  Campbell,  dear  Mr.  Campbell,  he 's 
always  faithful,  but  so  gentle.  Try  to  be  gentle,  with  holy 
gentleness." 

Saturday  the  19th. — To  the  same  friend  in  London  to 
whom  her  husband  had  written,  Mrs.  Paterson  now 
writes  : — 

"  We  wish  you  could  have  had  some  of  the  comfort  of 
hearing  some  of  the  calm  (I  would  say  manly)  words  of 
those  last  days,  and  of  seeing  the  brow  gradually  widen 
as  every  ruffle  passed  away  for  days  before  the  end,  and  the 
loving  tone  and  grateful  acknowledgment  of  our  efforts  to 
soothe  the  distress  of  the  body.  .  .  . 

"  All  these  sweet  human  touches  were  very  precious,  and 
then  the  marvellous  entrance  into  such  steadfast,  simple 
trust,  and  the  strange  inner  clearness  of  spirit  and  constant 
sleeping-and-waking  communion  with  his  God.  .  .  ." 

Sunday  the  20th. — At  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  he 
called  Miss  Gourlay  three  times  by  name.  Looking  at  her 
as  she  came,  distinctly  and  very  solemnly  he  said,  "  I  am 
done,  everything  is  done — for  me — with  this  outward  life 
— this  outward  life  ;  but  I  have  perfect  confidence  and 
perfect  hope  for  the  eternal  life.  Will  you  try  to  do 
what  you  can  .  .  .  for  me  .  .  .  put  ...  in  order  .  .  ." 
He  meant  his  papers. 

Two  days  before,  while  seeming  to  be  asleep,  there  had 
issued  from  his  lips,  "  My  beloved  mother — my  dear,  dear 
brother — my  beloved  Davie — my  beloved  Christian." 

And  now  in  a  sweet,  clear,  musical  voice  he  called  out 
"  Christian,  sister  !"  Already  were  the  broken  ties  of  the 
past  being  revived  and  re-formed. 


alt.  8 1  DEATH.  507 

In  the  evening  Dr.  Brown  came  in.  He  looked  at  him 
with  a  half  smile  and  welcome  recognition.  "  Yon  there  ! " 
he  said.  "  Yes,"  replied  Dr.  Brown ;  "  I  will  stay  with 
you."  "  To  the  end,"  Mr.  Erskine  added.  He  was  raised 
upon  the  pillows,  and  folded  his  hands  in  prayer.  At 
intervals  were  heard — "  0  Lord  my  God  .  .  .  Jesus  .  .  . 
Jesus  Christ  .  .  .  love  .  .  .  the  peace  of  God  .  .  .  for 
ever  and  ever,  for  Jesus'  sake,  Amen  and  Amen."  Then 
there  was  a  silence,  a  change  passed  over  his  face,  there 
were  long  intermissions  between  the  breaths,  but  no 
struggle,  no  appearance  of  suffering;  at  last  one  long 
gentle  sigh,  like  that  of  a  wearied  infant  dropping  asleep, 
— one  last  breath,  and  he  was  gone. 

The  countenance  became  very  beautiful  after  death.  It 
seemed  to  lengthen,  and  the  wrinkles  and  marks  of  suffer- 
ing and  conflict  which  had  made  it  rugged  all  passed  away. 
Through  the  whole  of  that  last  week  there  was  a 
nobility  in  it,  a  look  of  calm  patriarchal  dignity,  of  peace- 
ful gentle  patience,  waiting  till  his  time  came,  a  striking 
realisation  of  his  own  conception  of  what  the  last  moments 
of  earthly  life  ought  to  be. 

Next  morning  Dr.  Brown  wrote — 

"  Our  dear  sweet-hearted  friend  is  away.  He  died  very 
gently  last  night  at  a  quarter  to  ten,  laid  his  pathetic 
weary  head  on  the  pillow  like  a  child,  and  his  last  words 
were  '  Lord  Jesus.' " 

Dr.  Campbell,  to  whom  his  niece  had  been  sending  daily 
bulletins,  wrote  thus  a  few  days  afterwards  to  his  sons  : — 

"My  beloved  Mr.  Erskine  died  last  Sunday  evening. 
A  time  of  comparative  ease  and  freedom  from  suffering, 
combined  with  great  weakness  and  occasional  symptoms 
that  seemed  to  himself  and  to  those  around  him  to 
intimate  the  close,  spread  the  consciousness  of  a  death- 
bed   over  so    many   days    and    nights    that  to    him  and 


508  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE< 

to  them,  and  to  us  to  whom  there  was  a  letter  almost 
every  day,  it  has  been  a  prolonged  parting;  giving 
occasion  for  oft-repeated  utterances  of  his  faith  and 
hope  and  love,  which  are  to  us  all  memories  of  our 
latest  communion  with  him  here,  which  solemnly  and 
most  sweetly  connect  what  we  remember  as  his  past  life 
among  us  with  our  hope  for  that  on  which  he  has  now 
entered :  our  hope,  as  his  hope,  being  an  anchor  of  the 
soul,  sure  and  steadfast,  having  its  hold  within  the  veil." 

Few  have  ever  passed  away  from  among  their  fellows 
of  whom  so  large  a  number  of  those  who  knew  him  best, 
and  were  most  competent  to  judge,  would  have  said,  as  they 
did  of  Mr.  Erskine,  that  he  was  the  best,  the  holiest  man 
they  ever  knew, — the  man  most  human  yet  most  divine, 
with  least  of  the  stains  of  earth,  with  most  of  the  spirit  of 
heaven ;  the  man  in  whom  the  ideal  of  his  own  favourite 
poet  stood  in  every  feature  realised : — 

"  I  'm  apt  to  think  the  man 
That  could  surround  the  sum  of  things,  and  spy 
The  heart  of  God  and  secrets  of  His  Empire, 
Would  speak  but  love — with  him  the  bright  result 
Would  change  the  hue  of  intermediate  scenes 
And  make  one  thing  of  all  theology." 

Gambold. 


REMINISCENCES:   PRINCIPAL  SIIAIRP.  509 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

Reminiscences  by  Principal  Shairp. 

My  dear  Dr.  Hanna, — You  have  often  urged  me  to 
attempt  some  connected  narrative  of  the  life  and  character 
of  our  revered  friend,  the  late  Mr.  Erskine  of  Linlathen, 
and  I  have  often  myself  felt  a  strong  desire  to  do  so. 
But  as  soon  as  the  desire  has  arisen,  I  have  been  restrained 
by  a  sense  of  utter  inability.  I  felt  the  truth  of  those 
words  which  Dr.  Macleod  Campbell  wrote  to  Bishop 
Ewing  soon  after  Mr.  Erskine's  death  :  '  No  man  is  able 
to  say  to  those  who  knew  him  not  what  he  was ;  no  man 
could  say  this  to  those  who  knew  him  in  a  way  that  they 
would  feel  satisfying.'  All  that  I  shall  now  attempt  is 
to  put  together  such  recollections  of  him  as  I  can  give,  in 
the  hope  that  these  may  be  found  to  be  in  keeping  with 
the  impression  made  by  those  delightful  letters  which  you 
are  publishing. 

Although  it  was  as  a  spiritual  teacher  working  by  voice 
and  pen  that  Mr.  Erskine  was  known  to  the  world,  yet 
one  cannot  fully  understand  his  mind  and  influence  with- 
out taking  some  account  of  his  human  temperament  and 
earthly  circumstances.  In  him,  hardly  less  than  in  more 
mundane  characters,  the  race  from  which  he  came,  and 
the  people  who  surrounded  his  childhood,  had  much  to 
do  with  making  him  what  he  ultimately  became.  He 
himself  would  have  been  one  of  the  last  to  underrate  what 


510  REMINISCENCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE 

lie  owed  to  his  ancestry.  On  either  side  he  was  sprung 
from  a  far-descended  and  gracious  race,  and  among 
these,  his  kindred,  he  passed  a  childhood  and  youth 
sheltered  from  those  early  shocks  and  jars  which  probably 
lie  at  the  root  of  much  of  the  unkindness  and  asperity 
there  is  in  the  world.  Equally  on  his  father's  and  his 
mother's  side  he  came  from  what  the  late  biographer 
of  Walter  Scott  used  to  call,  with  so  much  satisfaction,  '  a 
fine  old  Scottish  family.'  Often  of  a  winter  evening, 
as  with  one  or  two  guests  Mr.  Erskine  drew  in  his 
chair  round  the  dining-room  fire  at  Linlathen,  he  would 
look  up  to  the  family  pictures  that  hung  round  the 
room,  and  tell  their  history,  and  remark  on  their 
characters.  When  he  looked  at  the  portrait  of  '  the  Black 
Colonel,'  as  he  was  called,  partly  from  his  swarthy  com- 
plexion, perhaps  too  from  the  dark  armour  in  which  he  is 
encased,  he  would  speak  of  him  with  a  peculiar  twinkle 
in  his  eye  and  a  humorous  smile  on  his  face.  Among 
the  virtues  you  have  attributed  to  the  Black  Colonel, 
that  bulwark  of  Presbyterianism,  there  is  one  you  have 
omitted, — his  great  love  of  litigation.  His  great-grandson, 
however,  used  to  tell  how  on  his  death-bed  he  is  reported 
to  have  said,  '  Haena  I  thretty  gude  ga'in  pleas  on  hand, 
and  that  fule  Jock  will  hae  compounded  them  a'  a  fort- 
nicht  after  I  'm  dead  ! '  That  '  fule  Jock '  was  his  son,  the 
great  Scottish  jurist,  author  of  the  Institutes.  His  picture 
hangs  near  his  father's,  and  his  pale  chiselled  refined  features 
form  a  striking  contrast  to  the  broad  swarthy  pugnative 
visage  of  the  Black  Colonel.  Mr.  Erskine  would  also  dwell 
lovingly  on  an  excellent  copy  by  Urquhart  of  Baeburn's 
beautiful  picture  of  a  refined  old  lady's  face.  This  was 
the  portrait  of  the  Hon.  Christian  Mackay,  daughter  of 
the  third  Lord  Beay,  which  hung  beside  that  of  her  grave 
earnest  husband,  Dr.  John  Erskine,  minister  of  Greyfriars, 


BY  PRINCIPAL  SHAIRP.  511 

who  was  Mr.  Erskine's  uncle.  In  the  late  Raeburn  Exhibi- 
tion in  Edinburgh  the  original  of  this  picture  of  Chris- 
tian Mackay  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  finest  of  the  many 
fine  old-lady  portraits  by  that  great  artist.  He  would  also 
speak  of  the  strong  homely  sense  mingled  with  genial  yet 
refined  humanity  that  looked  out  from  the  face  of  Lady 
Christian  Bruce,  the  wife  of  his  uncle  James,  the  laird  of 
Cardross.  Most  of  the  pictures  that  hung  round  that 
dining-room  belonged  to  his  father's  side  of  the  house. 

Of  his  maternal  ancestors,  though  there  was  but  one 
picture  on  the  wall,  the  images  dwelt  no  less  vividly  in  his 
heart.  At  Airth  Castle,  his  mother's  home,  the  happiest 
days  of  his  childhood  were  spent.  The  old  Lady  of  Airth, 
his  maternal  grandmother,  you  have  yourself  well  described, 
reading  her  English-Church  service  every  Sunday  to  her 
family  in  her  own  drawing-room,  while  the  Presbyterian 
worship  was  going  on  in  the  kirk,  which  then  stood  hard 
by  the  Castle.  The  old  place  of  Airth  is  one  deeply  to 
impress  itself  on  a  young  imagination. 

Out  of  the  carse  of  Falkirk,  that  great  dead  level  plain 
that  stretches  from  Falkirk  to  Stirling,  which,  as  the  great 
battle-field  of  Scotland,  holds  in  Scottish  history,  as  Dean 
Stanley  has  suggested,  the  same  place  which  the  plain  of 
Esdraelon  held  in  the  history  of  Israel, — out  of  that  carse, 
about  a  mile  inland  from  the  Links  of  Forth,  rises  a  scarp- 
ment  or  ridge  of  sandstone  abruptly  breaking  from  the 
surrounding  flats.  On  the  edge  of  that  scarpment  stands 
the  old  castle,  originally  a  square  peel  tower  with  pent-house 
roof,  like  those  common  all  over  Scotland.  To  that  tower 
has  been  built  on  a  long  high  line  of  building,  with  crow- 
stepped  gables,  a  steep  roof,  and  dormer  windows 
projecting  from  it.  This  range  of  building  forms 
the  later  dwelling-house, — all  that  was  there  in  Mr. 
Erskine's  childhood;  though  since  then  there  have  been 


512  REMINISCENCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE 

made  quite  modern  and  not  very  congruous  additions. 
This  long  building,  flanked  on  the  west  by  the  older  tower, 
looks  down,  over  a  small  precipice,  on  a  quaint  garden 
beneath,  and  beyond  the  garden  are  old  trees  and  a  lazy 
stream  lingering  towards  the  Forth.  The  house  fronts 
southward,  and  across  the  dead  level  carse  the  windows 
look  far  away  to  the  rising  ground  of  Falkirk  muir,  the 
scene  of  two  great  battles.  Contiguous  to  the  house,  on 
the  north-east  side,  is  the  old  churchyard,  full  of  ancient 
graves  and  grey  tombstones.  A  church  must  once  have 
stood  there,  but  it  has  disappeared.  Behind  the  house, 
to  north  and  west,  long  straight  avenues  and  park  trees 
stretch  on  toward  the  grounds  of  Dunmore  Park.  It  is 
almost  an  ideal  abode  of  an  ancient  Scottish  family,  like 
those  "Walter  Scott  loved  to  picture.  Such  outwardly  was 
the  place  and  neighbourhood  where  Thomas  Erskine  drank 
in  his  first  impressions  of  a  world  in  which  he  was  to 
abide  for  fourscore  years.  For  the  associations  of  a  mere 
town  house  in  childhood  go  for  little  compared  with  those 
of  the  first  country  home. 

The  inside  of  Airth  Castle  was  warm  to  him  with  much 
loving-kindness  and  old-fashioned  yet  refined  simplicity. 
The  old  servant,  himself  quite  a  part  of  the  family,  who 
spent  his  whole  lifetime  at  Airth,  lives  in  Dean  Ramsay's 
well-known  story  about  Mrs.  Moray  of  Abercairney  and 
the  salt-spoon, — a  story,  by  the  way,  with  which  Mr. 
Erskine  furnished  the  Dean.  But  to  that  quaint 
example  of 

"  The  constant  service  of  the  antique  world," 
Dean  Ramsay  has  not  added  one  pathetic  incident  with 
which  Mr.  Erskine  used  to  accompany  it.  That  old  family 
man-servant,  John  Campbell,  lived  to  see  Mrs.  Graham's 
eldest  son,  the  heir  of  the  house,  go  to  India  in  his 
country's    service.     Years   after,  the  ship  which  was  ex- 


BY  PRINCIPAL  SHAIRP.  513 

pected  to  bring  him  back  to  England,  brought  the  news 
of  his  death.  On  the  day  when  the  new  mourning  suit 
which  John  was  to  wear  for  his  young  master's  death  was 
laid  down  on  the  table  before  him,  he  fainted  away.  That 
kind  of  faithful  affection  in  a  domestic  servant,  common 
enough  at  the  beginning  of  this  century,  has  become  rarer 
now-a-days. 

Airth,  Kippenross,  Keir,  Ochtertyre,  Cardross,  with 
occasional  visits  to  Ardoch,  his  grandmother's  home,  and  to 
Abercairney, — the  summers  of  childhood  and  boyhood 
spent  in  these  melted  into  him  with  associations  of  beauty 
and  ancestral  repose  which  were  indelible,  and  the 
warm  atmosphere  of  human  life  that  then  surrounded  him, 
sweetened  his  whole  nature  to  the  core.  It  had  no  doubt 
much  to  do  with  drawing  out  that  deep  and  tender  affec- 
tionateness  which  made  him  all  life  through  the  much- 
loving  and  much-beloved  man  he  was. 

In  this  he  was  very  unlike  most  men.  Hearts  more  or 
less,  I  suppose,  most  of  us  have,  but  we  keep  them  so 
close-cased  and  padlocked,  we  wear  an  outside  so  hard  or 
dry,  that  little  or  none  of  the  love  that  may  be  within 
escapes  to  gladden  those  around  us.  And  so  life  passes 
without  any  of  the  sweetening  to  society  that  comes  when 
affection  is  not  only  felt  but  expressed, — for  to  be  of  any 
use  to  others  it  must  be  expressed  in  some  way.  Mr. 
Erskine  was  in  this  happy  above  most  men,  that,  being 
gifted  with  a  heart  more  than  usually  tender  and  sym- 
pathetic, he  had  brought  with  him  from  childhood  the  art 
of  expressing  it  simply  and  naturally.  So  it  was  that 
the  loving-kindness  that  was  in  him  streamed  freely  forth, 
making  the  happy  happier,  and  lightening  the  load  of  the 
sorrowful.  It  was  as  if  inside  his  man's  understanding: 
he  hid,  as  it  were,  a  woman's  heart.  And  though  this  is  a 
thing  no  early  training  could  have  implanted,  yet  when  it 

2  K 


514  REMINISCENCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE 

was  there,  the  warm  affection  that  surrounded  his  boyhood 
was  the  very  atmosphere  to  cherish  and  expand  it. 

If  this  had  been  all,  it  might  have  led  to  softness,  but 
the  society  of  his  childhood,  though  based  on  affection,  had 
enough  of  the  old  Scottish  verve  and  intellect  in  it  to  keep 
it  from  degenerating  into  sentimentalism.  His  own  busy 
intellect  too  was  early  stirring,  and  the  winter  home  of  his 
mother  in  St.  David  Street  was  pervaded  by  that  old-world 
simplicity  and  frugality  which  is  so  bracing  to  character. 
Besides,  even  if  the  boy's  early  years  had  been  too  tenderly 
nurtured,  school  life,  as  it  then  existed,  especially  in  the 
rough  old  High  School  of  Edinburgh,  was  sure  to  give 
scope  enough  for  the  hardy  virtues. 

Although  I  had  long  known  Mr.  Erskine  by  reputation 
and  through  mutual  friends,  it  was  not  till  the  year  1854 
that  I  became  personally  acquainted  with  him.  As  I 
happened  to  be  in  Scotland  in  the  winter  of  that  year,  his 
cousin  Miss  Jane  Stirling  wrote  to  him  that  I  was  anxious 
to  meet  him,  and  he  at  once  invited  me  to  visit  him  at 
Linlathen. 

It  was,  I  think,  on  a  Saturday  afternoon,  the  7th  of 
January  in  that  year,  that  he  received  me  in  that  library 
at  Linlathen  which  his  friends  so  well  remember.  I  had 
not  been  any  time  with  him  before  he  opened  on  those 
subjects  which  lay  always  deepest  in  his  thoughts.  Often 
during  that  visit,  in  the  library,  or  in  walks  after  dark  up 
and  down  the  corridor,  or,  when  the  weather  allowed,  in 
walks  about  the  grounds,  those  subjects  were  renewed.  The 
one  thing  that  first  struck  me  at  that  time  was  his  entire 
openness  of  mind,  his  readiness  to  hear  whatever  could  be 
urged  against  his  own  deepest  convictions,  the  willingness 
with  which  he  welcomed  any  difficulties  felt  by  others,  and 
the  candour  with  which  he  answered  them  from  his  own 
experience  and  storehouse  of  reflection.     He  exemplified 


BY  PRINCIPAL  SHAIRP.  515 

that  text  which  he  often  quoted,  'The  heart  of  the  righteous 
man  studieth  to  answer.'  This  was  a  characteristic  of  him 
which  is  not  often  found  in  men  so  religious.  Commonly 
the  statement  of  any  view,  very  unlike  that  which  they 
have  heen  accustomed  to  hold,  shocks  them ;  and  younger 
inquirers,  seeing  that  they  are  thought  impious  or  give 
pain,  cease  to  reveal  their  thoughts,  and  intercourse  is  at 
an  end.  With  Mr.  Erskine  it  was  just  the  reverse  of  this. 
His  whole  manner  and  spirit  elicited  confidence  from 
younger  men.  No  thought  could  ever  have  occurred  to 
them  which,  if  they  were  serious  ahout  it,  they  need  have 
hesitated  to  tell  him.  And  it  would  seldom  he  that  they 
did  not  find  in  his  replies  something  either  really  helpful, 
or  at  least  something  well  worth  their  pondering. 

The  following  are  some  notes  of  his  conversations  made 
during  that  first  visit. 

What  is  the  true  guide  1 

Answer. — I  fall  hack  more  and  more  on  first  principles. 
The  conscience  in  each  man  is  the  Christ  in  each  man.  It 
is  the  ray  of  light  coming  straight  from  the  great  Fountain 
of  Light ;  or  rather,  it  is  the  eye  guided  by  the  Sun  j  or 
it  is  the  child's  shell  murmuring  of  its  native  ocean  ;  or 
the  cord  let  down  by  God  into  each  man  by  which  He 
leads  each.  Often  the  string  lies  quite  slack ;  the  man  is 
not  conscious  of  the  guidance  and  the  guide.  Then  the 
string  becomes  tight,  and  the  man  feels  the  drawing,  he 
is  conscious  of  God.  The  great  thing  is  to  identify  duty 
and  conscience  hourly  with  God. 

The  universal  diffusion  of  conscience  through  all  men  is 
Christ  in  all  men, — "  Christ  in  you  the  hope  of  glory." 

He  was  in  the  man,  and  the  man  was  made  by  Him, 
and  the  man  knew  Him  not.  This  is  true  of  every  man 
by  nature.  And  the  great  thing  is  to  become  conscious 
of  Him,  and  to  know  Him  through  Himself  revealed  in 


516  REMINISCENCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE 


conscience.  '  The  Spirit  (not  the  wind)  bloweth  whither 
it  will,  and  ye  hear  the  sound  thereof,  but  cannot  tell 
whence  it  cometh  or  whither  it  goeth.'  But  for  not  being 
able  to  tell  we  are  in  fault.  This  is  our  sin.  [This  was 
with  Mr.  Erskine  one  favourite  gloss  upon  that  text  in  St. 
John's  Gospel,  though  I  never  felt  sure  that  it  was  a  correct 
one.     Besides  this  he  gave  to  it  other  applications.] 

"No  man  hath  ascended  up  to  heaven.  .  .  ."  And 
so  it  is  only  Christ  in  the  man,  the  man  who  has  become 
one  with  Christ,  and  Christlike,  in  whom  the  old  self  is 
subdued,  that  can  ascend  up  to  heaven. 

This  light,  this  conscience,  manifests  itself  often  to  man 
as  witnessing  against  his  present  state,  making  him  feel 
the  hollowness  and  discomfort  of  life  apart  from  God. 
Still,  the  witnessing  against  him, — this  is  Christ  within  the 
man,  grieving  for  his  alienation,  calling  him  to  be  recon- 
ciled. This  condemnation  and  uneasiness  of  soul  is  the 
sound  or  tone  which  God's  voice  takes  when  speaking  in 
the  natural  heart.  It  is  God  and  Christ  calling  him  to 
return.  This  voice  of  God  sounds  loud  in  great  crises.  If 
a  man  were  tempted  to  commit  murder,  then  it  would 
sound  more  loudly  than  usual.  But  it  does  not  then  for 
the  first  time  begin  to  sound.  It  has  been  sounding 
always,  through  all  his  ordinary  life,  in  a  low  habitual 
tone,  but  he  has  not  heard,  nor  cared  to  hear  it. 

There  is  into  each  man  a  continual  inflowing  of  the 
Logos.  It  is  by  virtue  of  Christ  being  in  all  men  that 
conscience  is  universal  in  men. 

"  He  that  answereth  before  he  heareth  is  a  son  that 
causeth  shame."  So  we  ought  to  hear  this  voice  of  the 
Spirit  before  Ave  act  or  speak ;  we  ought  to  wait  for  it,  and 
not  make  haste.  "  The  heart  of  the  righteous  studieth  to 
answer."  Man  ought  to  wait  on  this  voice,  for  it  is  always 
there,  if  we  would  hear  it.     When  our  Lord  said,  "  He 


BY  PRINCIPAL  SHA1RP.  517 

that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear,"  it  was  this  inward 
ear  he  meant. 

This  conscience,  this  inward  light,  is  the  great  organ  of 
Theology.  Only  that  which  commends  itself  to  his  con- 
science, that  which  each  man  can  feel  to  be  right  and  true, 
that  only  he  really  believes.  Whatever  more  he  fancies  J 
he  believes  on  authority  or  otherwise,  is  not  real  belief,  or  I 
faith.  But  does  not  this  make  the  old  Sophists'  saying 
true,  av0po)7ro<;  fxerpov  Travroov,  or  each  man's  individual 
frame  or  feeling  the  measure  of  truth  for  him  ]    No  !     For, 

1st,  It  is  of  the  true  nature  of  conscience  not  to  be  /' 
individual.  Conscience  is  not  mine,  I  am  conscience's 
Each  man  does  not  possess  it,  but  is  possessed  by  it.  It 
speaks  in  virtue  of  a  higher  light  than  itself,  of  which  it 
declares  itself  to  be  but  a  ray.  It  swells  outward  to  Christ, 
and  finds  its  fulness  only  in  Him  and  God.  It  is  Their 
continual  witness,  referring  back  not  to  itself  but  to  Them. 
Therefore  this  light  never  can  cut  itself  off  from  its  source, 
and  set  itself  up  as  an  independent  authority,  for  this 
would  be  to  abdicate  its  own  nature. 

2d,  Neither  will  a  man,  who  is  truly  awakened  to  listen 
to  conscience,  set  up  his  own  conscience  as  a  rival  of  the 
Bible,  and  reject  all  Scripture  that  does  not  at  once  com- 
mend itself  to  him.  For  the  conscience  that  is  true  is  / 
humble,  and  feels  that  it  is  but  a  feeble  struggling  ray,  and  / 
will  lie  at  the  feet  of  the  true  light.  Only  it  will  not  say 
that  it  believes  anything  till  it  does  believe  it,  that  is,  till 
it  feels  it  to  be  right  and  true.  Further  than  this  it 
cannot  go.  That  larger  light  which  men  may  urge  on  its 
acceptance,  on  the  authority  of  the  Church  or  of  Scripture, 
it  does  not  deny  this,  or  set  itself  against  it.  Only  it 
cannot  take  it  in,  make  it  its  own,  till  for  itself  it  sees 
light  through  it.  It  will  say,  What  you  urge  me  to 
believe  may  be  true,  but  I  do  not  know  it  to  be  true  now. 


518  REMINISCENCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE 


I  may  come  to  see  it,  or  I  may  not,  but  at  present  I  am 
not  in  a  condition  to  witness  for  it. 

Christ  is  the  great  universal  conscience,  calling  to  every 
man,  Hear  and  your  soul  shall  live — live  to  God,  die  to 
yourself. 

Next  day  he  added  this  corollary  to  the  above  :  God 
speaks  to  me  in  conscience,  but  I  do  not  always  apprehend 
His  language.  I  seek  to  know  and  apprehend  it,  and  I 
find  far  more  in  the  Bible  than  anywhere  else  that  explains 
conscience.  It  may  be  said,  All  things  are  calls,  all 
things  are  intended  to  educate  men,  and  so  in  a  sense  they 
are.  But  the  Bible  is  so  in  a  peculiar  way.  I  explain  con- 
science by  the  Bible,  and  the  Bible  by  conscience,  both 
ways ;  but  till  they  meet  and  illuminate  each  the  other, 
there  is  no  true  light,  no  true  conviction. 

The  Gospel  history  is  the  consciousness  I  find  within 
me  expressed  outwardly.  It  is  only  by  finding  a  oneness 
between  the  outward  history  and  the  inward  consciousness 
that  I  can  understand  the  history,  and  the  history  makes 
me  understand  my  own  consciousness.  The  history  of 
Jesus  Christ,  what  He  sorrowed  and  suffered,  is  a  perfect 
outward  manifestation  of  what  will  go  on  imperfectly  in 
every  man's  heart  now,  just  in  proportion  as  he  enters 
into  the  mind  of  Christ. 

Another  day  during  that  visit  Mr.  Erskine's  conversa- 
tion took  this  turn  : — Christ  stands  to  us  in  two  capacities. 
First,  As  the  Representative  of  the  Father  He  came, 
showing  us  what  is  the  character  of  the  Father,  bringing 
down  to  us  His  holy,  righteous,  loving  purpose  towards 
us.  And  so  He  comes  down  now  to  each  man,  is,  asit 
were,  again  in^arh^l^^lh^adiman's  conscience,  and   in 


that  conscience,1he  trueTI^ht,  the  Spirit  within  eacTTman, 
He  grieves  over  each  man's  sin,  agonises  for  it  in  each 
man,   'suffers,  the  just   for   the    unjust.'      Just   as   you 


BY  PRINCIPAL  SHAIRP.  519 

might  conceive  the  spirit  of  St.  John  to  enter  inside  the 
spirit  of  Barabbas, — St.  John's  heart  to  be  shut  up  in 
Barabbas's  heart, — how  it  would  be  pained  and  grieved  by 
the  dark  polluted  environment  in  which  it  found  itself! 
Naturally  it  would  will  itself  away  from  such  an  abode. 
But  if  it  were  to  stay  there,  and  though  grieving  and 
sore  pained  yet  refuse  to  depart  till  it  had  purified 
Barabbas  and  won  him  back  to  God,  in  some  such  way 
we  may  conceive  of  the  Christ  indwelling  in  each  man. 
Or  as  an  upright  high-minded  elder  brother  might  grieve 
and  feel  pain  at  seeing  some  great  meanness  or  base  action 
in  a  younger.  At  first  the  elder  only  would  feel  pain  and 
grief,  the  younger  would  feel  none.  But  this  pain  of  the 
elder  might  in  time  be  seen  by  the  younger,  and  being 
seen  might  draw  him  to  feel  the  same,  to  enter  into  the 
sorrow  of  the  elder,  and  so  to  be  of  one  mind  with  him, 
and  be  delivered  from  his  meanness. 

Christ  came  once,  and  was  manifested  eighteen  hundred 
years  ago ;  but  both  before  and  since  that  time  He  has  been, 
as  it  were,  diffused  through  humanity,  lying  at  the  bottom 
of  every  man  as  the  basis  of  his  being.  It  was  in  Him  that 
God  created  man — just  as  light  was  the  first  created 
thing,  spread  abroad  diffusedly,  but  not  gathered  up  into 
the  sun  till  the  fourth  day.  So  Christ  the  Head  was 
latent  in  humanity  as  the  Head,  but  the  Head  did  not 
come  out  and  show  itself  to  the  senses  till  the  personal 
Christ  appeared  in  the  flesh. 

Secondly,  Christ's  second  capacity  is  as  the  Head  of  the 
whole  race.  In  this  capacity  He  fulfils  God's  whole  will, 
accepts  the  suffering  which  is  eternally  inseparable  from 
sin,  bears  it  willingly,  not  indeed  to  save  us  from  suffering, 
but  to  call  each  of  us  to  accept  God's  whole  will  gladly  as 
He  accepted  it,  to  accept  suffering  when  sent,  not  as  a 
punishment  but  as  healing,  and  so  to  follow  Christ, — to 


520  REMINISCENCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE 

call  each  to  die  continually  to  self,  and  to  accept  death  as 
a  duty,  as  the  declaration  of  God's  will  and  purpose 
towards  us, — to  accept  it,  not  with  sullen  resignation,  or 
general  bare  trust  in  God's  mercy,  but  as  feeling  that 
God's  purpose  for  us  is  always  and  wholly  good,  whether 
in  life  or  death.  It  is  through  dying  to  self  continually 
in  life,  and  at  last  through  actual  death,  willingly  borne, 
only  thus  that  man  can  overcome.  Sin  and  suffering  are 
eternally  connected.  The  body  which  belongs  to  this 
seen  system  of  things,  to  which  man  alienated  from 
God  has  surrendered  himself,  it  is  righteous  that  it 
should  suffer  and  die  for  its  sin.  And  the  spiritual  man 
will  see  and  feel  the  righteousness  of  this,  and  willingly 
give  himself  up  to  suffering  and  death.  And  so  Christ 
the  righteous,  as  the  Elder  Brother  of  our  race,  standing 
at  the  head  of  humanity,  willingly  entered  into  and  bore 
this  death  which  the  rest  had  to  bear,,  and  by  bearing  He 
overcame  it.  And  so  it  is  only  by  closing  with  death 
and  suffering  willingly  (in  the  fellowship  with  Him),  by 
accepting  it  as  righteous,  and  apprehending  God's  righteous 
loving  purpose  in  it,  that  any  man  can  overcome  it.  .  .  . 

Christ  once  entered  into  humanity,  and  enters  again 
into  each  man,  not  only  to  express  God's  grief  and  pain 
over  each  man's  sin,  but  also  that  He  may  say  in  His 
capacity  as  the  Son,  and  also  as  the  Head  of  the  race, 
Righteous  art  Thou,  0  God,  in  thus  judging  sin,  in  con- 
necting suffering  eternally  with  sin.  In  this  asjiect  both 
the  capacities  of  Christ  combine. 

Another  time  this  was  the  turn  his  conversation  took  : — 
Suppose  a  man  who  had  all  his  life  long  been  a  reckless 
profligate,  sinning  every  day  without  the  least  compunction  ; 
but  suppose  that  at  last  it  had  come  to  this  that  he  must 
either  commit  one  of  his  daily  sins,  tell  one  of  his  habitual 
lies,  or  be  put  to  death  unless  he  did  so.     It  might  be 


BY  PRINCIPAL  SUA  IP  P.  521 


that  this  might  pull  him  up;  conscience  might  awake, 
check  him,  and  keep  him  from  the  meanness  of  buying 
his  life  by  one  of  those  sins  which  he  had  been  in  the 
habit  of  committing  daily  without  scruple.  Here  some- 
thing within  might  whisper,  Do  it  this  once,  and  then 
you  will  have  time  to  repent  of  all  your  past  life ;  for  if 
you  die  now,  you  must  go  at  once  to  hell.  This  would 
seem  to  be  conscience,  but  it  would  be  a  false  conscience. 
The  true  conscience  would  say,  Do  it  not,  fear  not  that 
God  can  ever  punish  a  man  for  doing  right,  or  that  a  man 
can  ever  lose  by  doing  God's  will,  by  obeying  His  own 
voice  within  him.  In  every  call  from  God  to  arise  and  do 
thejjght,  justification  for  the  past  is  implied.  The  justi- 
fication comes  contained  in  this  voice  of  conscience.  The 
command  to  abstain  from  sin  implies  that  God  justifies, — 
has  put  away  the  past  sin.  And  thus  when  the  man 
consents  with  his  full  will  to  death  rather  than  do  the 
wrong,  and  recognises  and  accepts  in  the  call  to  die  God's 
loving  purpose  toward  him,  he  receives  the  forgiveness 
and  justification  into  himself.  Every  call  of  God  to  do 
right,  every  voice  of  conscience,  is  a  new  coming  of  justifi- 
cation to  the  man.  Even  if  it  come  in  the  shape  of  a 
condemnation  of  the  man's  present  condition,  it  is  still 
the  same,  a  fresh  inflow  of  justification  from  God.  For 
why  should  He  deal  with  the  man  at  all,  even  to  condemn 
him,  if  He  did  not  intend  to  deliver  him  from  sin  and 
alienation "? 

When  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  was  brought  to  trial,  the 
counsel  for  his  defence  pleaded  that  he  could  not  by  the 
law  of  England,  or  by  right  justice,  be  condemned,  or  even 
tried,  for  the  said  offence,  because  it  took  place  long  ago, 
and  he  had  received  the  royal  commission  to  serve  the 
Queen  since  the  offence  had  been  committed.  And  every 
time  the  royal  commission  was  given  to  a  man,  it  by  its 


522  REMINISCENCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE 

nature  declared  that  he  was  a  perfectly  clear,  free  man. 
So  every  time  that  God  speaks  to  us  in  conscience,  we 
may  accept  it  as  declaring  that  He  still  justifies  us, 
pardons  us,  calls  us  to  put  away  our  sin,  to  die  to  our 
own  selves,  to  give  up  our  own  will,  and  enter  into  His 
will.  And  if  we  apprehend  His  call  thus,  and  do  surrender 
ourselves  willingly  to  His  will,  we  accept  the  justification. 
Another  time  during  that  same  visit  he  said  : — The 
Bible  is  the  great  interpreter  of  consciousness,  and  of 
conscience.  Conscience  is  not  mine,  I  am  its.  Often  a 
man  does  not  understand  his  conscience.  A  man,  for 
instance,  is  wroth  with  his  neighbour  who  has  wronged 
him,  vents  his  anger  against  him,  and  longs  to  be  revenged. 
Another  comes  and  says  to  him,  Why  are  you  angry  with 
that  man  1  Why  do  you  wish  to  trample  on  him  1  He 
answers,  Because  my  conscience,  looking  at  this  injury 
in  God's  light,  tells  me  that  I  do  well  to  be  angry  and 
revengeful  against  him.  The  other  rejoins,  Did  God 
really  give  you  this  conscience,  this  sense  of  your  neigh- 
bour's sin,  in  order  that  you  may  trample  on  him,  or  not 
rather  that,  feeling  deeply  his  sin,  you  may  help  him  out 
of  it  1  Again,  years  afterwards  the  expostulator  finds  the 
angry  man  on  the  point  of  death ;  he  is  overwhelmed  with 
the  remembrance  of  his  sin,  and  he  says  that  all  this  terror 
is  just  the  effect  of  God's  anger  towards  him,  and  the  sign 
that  He  intends  to  punish  him.  The  expostulator  puts 
him  in  mind  of  their  conversation  years  ago,  asks  him  if 
he  thinks  that  God  has  this  anger,  and  has  made  this 
declaration  of  it  in  his  terror-stricken  conscience,  that  he 
may  destroy  him,  and  not  rather  that  he  may  help  him 
out  of  his  sin  and  his  terror — just  as  the  strong  conviction 
of  his  neighbour's  wrong-doing  years  ago  was  given  to 
himself,  not  that  he  might  take  vengeance  on  him,  but 
that  he  might  help  him  out  of  his  sin. 


BY  PRINCIPAL  SHAIRP.  523 

Such  were  some  of  the  lines  on  which  his  thoughts  ran 
during  that  first  visit  in  1854.  All  who  knew  him  will 
probably  recognise  in  them  either  the  very  thoughts  they 
have  themselves  heard  from  him,  or  at  least  thoughts  like 
those  they  have  heard  from  him.  These  were  the  channels 
which  his  mind  latterly  had  grooved  for  itself,  and  which 
it  wore  ever  deeper  as  time  went  on.  When  he  was 
alone  with  a  sympathetic  hearer,  and  sometimes  to  those 
who  were  not  very  sympathetic,  his  discourse  would  return 
again  and  again  to  the  same  channels,  and  flow  on  for 
hours  together  in  thoughtful  monologue. 

These  more  inward  subjects  of  conversation  he  often 
varied  by  recurring  to  the  events  and  the  persons  of  his 
past  life  which  had  most  impressed  him.  He  would  often 
talk  with  much  affection  of  the  friends  he  had  made  abroad, 
— at  Paris,  at  Geneva,  and  at  Rome,  and  most  frequently 
recurred  to  the  memory  of  Madame  de  Broglie. 

Of  home  events,  that  which  filled  the  largest  place  in 
his  retrospect  was  the  revival  of  religion  which  began  at 
Row  in  1828,  and  continued  there  till  it  was  cut  short  by 
the  summary  verdict  of  the  General  Assembly  in  1831. 
Mr.  Erskine,  as  is  well  known,  had  been  an  earnest  sym- 
pathiser and  fellow-worker  with  Mr.  Campbell,  had  stood 
by  his  side  through  all  the  persecutions  he  was  called  to 
undergo,  and  had  been  a  witness  of  that  never-to-be- 
forgotten  night  in  the  General  Assembly  which  cast  out 
from  the  Church  of  his  fathers  one  of  the  saintliest  of  her 
sons.  The  decisions  of  the  Assembly  could  not  touch  Mr. 
Erskine,  but  all  the  more  for  this  he  felt  the  deep  wrong 
which  the  Church  by  that  act  had  done  to  his  friend,  and 
the  still  deeper  injury  she  had  done  to  herself.  He  never 
ceased  to  regard  it  as  the  stoning  by  the  Church  of  Scotland 
of  her  best  prophet,  the  deliberate  rejection  of  the  highest 
lisdvt  vouchsafed  to  her  in  his  time.     Few  felt  as  he  did 


524  REMINISCENCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE 

that  day;  but  as  years  went  on  more  and  more  woke 
up  to  know  what  an  evil  thing  had  been  done  in  the 
land.  From  that  time  on  for  many  years  he  ceased  to 
have  any  sympathy  with  the  Church  of  Scotland,  when 
not  only  the  men,  but  the  truth  he  most  prized,  had  been 
so  rudely  trampled  down.  In  his  eyes  all  the  calamities 
that  befell  her  were  the  natural  sequel  of,  perhaps  judg- 
ments for,  the  wrong  she  had  done  in  1831.  In  the  last 
twenty  years  of  his  life  he  came  to  know  and  value  both 
the  character  and  the  teaching  of  some  of  the  young  gene- 
ration of  ministers,  and  from  time  to  time  he  attended  their 
ministrations.  His  was  not  the  spirit  to  feel  anything  like 
sectarian  hostility  to  the  Church,  though  he  believed  it  to 
have  so  deeply  sinned,  but  he  never  ceased  to  feel  righteous 
indignation  against  the  wrong-doing,  though  not  against 
the  wrong-doers. 

One  story  connected  with  this  time  he  used  to  tell.  It 
was  of  the  Rev.  William  Dow,  a  good  man,  who  was 
minister  of  a  parish  in  the  south  of  Scotland,  but  who  for 
siding  with  the  views  of  Mr.  Campbell  of  Row  was  called 
to  stand  his  trial  before  the  General  Assembly.  On  the 
Sunday  immediately  before  he  went  to  Edinburgh  for  his 
trial,  being  quite  sure  what  fate  awaited  him,  he  thus 
addressed  his  country  congregation  : — "  You  all  know  that 
to-morrow  I  leave  this  to  go  to  Edinburgh,  and  to  stand 
my  trial  before  the  General  Assembly.  And  the  result  I 
know  will  be  that  I  shall  be  turned  out  of  my  parish,  and 
that  this  is  the  last  time  I  shall  address  you  as  your 
minister.  This  you  all  know.  But  there  is  one  thing 
about  myself  which  you  do  not  know,  but  which  I  will 
tell  you.  When  I  first  came  here  to  be  your  minister  I 
found  difficulty  in  obtaining  a  house  in  the  parish  to  live 
in.  There  was  but  one  house  in  the  parish  I  could  have, 
that  was  suitable,  and  that  belonged  to  a  poor  widow.     I 


BY  PRINCIPAL  SHAIRP.  525 

went  and  offered  a  higher  rent  for  her  house  than  she  paid. 
She  was  dispossessed,  and  I  got  the  house.  I  put  that 
poor  woman  out  of  her  house  then,  and  I  hold  it  to  be  a 
righteous  thing  in  God  to  put  me  out  of  my  parish  now." 

This  accepting  the  punishment  as  a  righteous  thing  was 
entirely  to  Mr.  Erskine's  mind. 

His  friend  Mr.  Campbell  of  Eow  writes  of  him  in  1863  : 
'  He  is  very  full,  as  has  ever  been  his  way,  of  the  thoughts 
which  have  last  taken  form  in  his  mind,  and  would  bend 
everything  to  them ;  and  my  work,  as  of  old,  has  been  to 
endeavour  to  keep  before  him  what  he  may  seem  to  me  to 
leave  out  of  account.'  This  exactly  describes  his  discourse 
as  his  friends  knew  it. — '  And  would  bend  everything  to 
them,' that  is,  to  the  thoughts  that  for  the  time  absorbed  him. 
This  was  especially  observable  in  many  of  the  interpreta- 
tions which  he  imposed  on  difficult  texts  of  Scripture.  They 
were  exceedingly  ingenious,  and  such  as  could  only  have 
occurred  to  a  meditative  and  highly  spiritual  mind.  But 
it  often  seemed,  as  if  the  interpretation  was  born  from 
within  his  own  thought,  rather  than  gathered  from  impar- 
tial exegesis.  So  strong  was  the  heat  of  his  cherished  con- 
victions, that  before  them  the  toughest,  most  obdurate  text 
gave  way,  melted  and  fused  into  the  mould  which  his  bias 
had  framed  for  it.  It  was  the  characteristic  of  his  mind 
to  seize  whatever  truth  it  did  see  with  a  peculiar  intensity 
of  grasp.  This  is  what  Mr.  Campbell  in  a  letter  of  1868 
speaks  of  as  his  '  tendency  to  reduce  many  aspects  of  truth 
to  one,  making  him  hesitate  to  see  now  the  importance, 
not  to  say  the  correctness,  of  what  he  once  urged,  making 
him,  indeed,  appear  to  give  up  what  he  once  held.  I  do 
not  believe  that  his  views  have  at  all  changed  as  they 
appear  to  himself  to  have  done.  .  .  .  '  This  passage  seems 
to  mark  exactly  the  distinction  between  the  minds  of  the 
two  friends,  as  they  struck  me  when  I  used  to  see  them 


526  REMINISCENCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE 

together,  or  rather  perhaps  when,  after  conversing  with  one, 
I  afterwards  spoke  to  the  other  on  the  same  subject.  Mr. 
Erskine,  whatever  truth  possessed  him,  threw  himself  wholly 
into  it,  became  absorbed  in  it,  expounded  it  with  a  gentle 
yet  vehement  eloquence,  and  illustrated  it  with  a  wealth 
of  ingenious  illustration  which  was  quite  foreign  to  Mr. 
Campbell's  habits  of  thought.  Mr.  Campbell,  on  the  other 
hand,  even  the  truths  he  most  realised,  he  could  con- 
template with  long  patience,  could  move  round  them,  and 
consider  them  deliberately  from  every  side,  could  see  them 
in  all  their  bearings  on  other  truths,  and  see  those  other 
truths  in  their  bearing  on  them.  This  patient  power  of 
balancing  truths  seemingly  opposed,  combined  with  the  per- 
sistent adherence  to  his  first  cherished  principles,  contrasted 
strikingly  with  the  vehemence  with  which  Mr.  Erskine 
flung  himself  on  the  thoughts  that  had  once  taken  pos- 
session of  him. 

Arising  perhaps  out  of  this  tendency  in  Mr.  Erskine  to 
be  absorbed  in  one  great  truth,  which  he  made  to  over- 
bear all  other  truths  that  opposed  it,  was  his  belief 
in  the  final  restitution  of  all  men.  This  seemed  to  him  to 
be  the  only  legitimate  issue  of  the  Gospel.  The  conviction 
that  it  was  so  grew  on  him  latterly,  and  he  expressed  it 
freely.  He  used  to  dwell  much  on  those  passages  in  St. 
Paul's  epistles  which  seemed  to  him  to  favour  this  cherished 
belief  of  his.  In  one  thing,  however,  Mr.  Erskine  was  alto- 
gether unlike  most  of  those  who  hold  the  tenets  of  Uni- 
versalism.  No  man  I  ever  knew  had  a  deeper  feeling  of  the 
exceeding  evil  of  sin,  and  of  the  Divine  necessity  that  sin 
must  always  be  misery.  His  universalistic  views  did  not  in 
any  way  relax  his  profound  sense  of  God's  abhorrence  of  sin. 

Any  one  who  talked  intimately  with  Mr.  Erskine  in 
later  jears  could  not  hell)  hearing  these  views  put  strongly 
before  him.     Often  when  he  urged  them  on  me  he  seemed 


BY  PRINCIPAL  SHA1RP.  527 

disappointed  when  I  could  not  acquiesce.  I  used  to  urge 
that  we  do  not  know  enough  of  the  nature  and  pos- 
sibilities of  the  human  will  to  warrant  us  in  holding  that 
a  time  must  come  when  it  will  yield  to  moral  suasion  which 
it  may  have  resisted  all  through  its  earthly  existence. 
Then  as  to  the  Bible,  tbough  there  are  some  isolated  texts 
which  seem  to  make  Mr.  Erskine's  way,  yet  Scripture, 
taken  as  a  whole,  speaks  a  quite  different  language.  The 
strongest,  most  emphatic  declarations  against  his  views 
seem  to  be  words  of  our  Lord  Himself.  Therefore  I 
shrink  from  all  dogmatic  assertions  on  this  tremendous 
subject,  desiring  to  go  no  further  than  the  words  of  Scrip- 
ture allow,  till  the  day  comes  which  shall  bring  forth  His 
righteousness  as  the  noonday. 

It  would  be  no  adequate  representation  of  Mr.  Erskine 
as  he  appeared  among  men,  to  conceive  of  him  as  confin- 
ing all  his  conversation  to  religion  and  theology.  Yet 
these,  no  doubt,  were  his  favourite  subjects,  those  that  lay 
nearest  his  heart ;  and  when  he  met  with  a  sympathetic 
listener  he  poured  himself  forth  unweariedly.  It  was  not 
any  mere  speculations  about  theology,  any  mere  dealing 
through  the  intellect  with  what  is  called  scientific  theology. 
That  was  to  him  the  mere  outwork,  the  shell  of  something 
far  more  inward  and  vital.  In  that  inner  region  that  lies 
beyond  all  mere  speculation  you  felt  that  his  whole  being 
was  absorbed, — that  he  was  making  it  his  own,  not  with 
the  mere  understanding  only,  but  that  his  heart,  conscience, 
and  spirit  were  wholly  in  it.  And  whether  his  listener 
understood  all  he  said — for  sometimes  it  was  hard  to  catch 
for  its  subtlety, — and  whether  he  agreed  with  it  or  not,  for 
sometimes  it  was  novel  and  even  startling, — no  one,  who 
could  feel  what  spiritual-mindedness  was,  could  come  away 
from  his  converse  without  feeling  that  in  his  society  they 


528  REMINISCENCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE 

had  breathed  for  a  while  a  heavenly  atmosphere.  To 
return  from  it  to  common  doings  and  every-day  talk  was 
like  descending  from  the  mount  of  vision  to  the  dusty 
highway. 

It  used  to  be  a  strange  feeling  to  walk  about  his  place  with 
him,  wearing,  as  he  did,  to  the  outward  eye,  the  guise  of  a 
Scottish  laird,  while  all  the  while  his  inner  spirit,  you  felt, 
was  breathing  the  atmosphere  of  St.  John.  It  was  some- 
thing so  unlike  anything  you  met  with  elsewhere  in  society. 
The  Scotland  of  his  later  years,  in  his  own  rank,  and 
among  all  the  educated  classes,  had  become  more  religious 
than  that  of  his  early  manhood.  But  even  at  its  best  the 
tone  of  religious  society  was  unlike  his.  For  when  left 
alone  to  himself  he  was  a  man  absorbed  in  the  thought  of 
God.  There  is  a  saying  of  Boehme's  which  he  loved  to 
quote  :  "  The  element  of  the  bird  is  the  air,  the  element  of 
the  fish  is  the  water,  the  element  of  the  salamander  is  the 
fire,  and  the  heart  of  God  is  Jacob  Boehme's  element." 
As  I  have  heard  him  quote  these  words  I  used  to  think 
'  Thou  art  the  man  that  Boehme  describes  himself  to  be.' 
What  Mr.  Alexander  Scott  is  reputed  to  have  said,  many 
other  hearts  will  respond  to,  that  ever  after  he  knew  Mr. 
Erskine  he  never  thought  of  God  but  the  thought  of  Mr. 
Erskine  was  not  far  away.  And  combined  with  this  went 
another  tendency, — I  mean  the  absolute  conviction  that  all 
true  thought  about  God  would  be  found  to  harmonise  with 
all  that  is  truest  and  highest  in  the  conscience  and  the  affec- 
tions of  man.  It  was  the  desire  himself  to  see  and  to  make 
others  see  this  harmony,  to  see  that  Christian  doctrine  was 
that  which  alone  meets  the  cravings  of  heart  and  conscience, 
— it  was  this  desire  which  animated  him  in  all  the  books 
he  wrote,  and  in  all  the  many  conversations  he  carried  on. 
Over  the  social  circle  that  met  within  his  home  at 
Linlathen,  his  Christian  influence  showed  itself  in  many 


BY  PRINCIPAL  SHAIRP.  529 

ways,  and  though  differing  according  as  it  met  with  different 
characters,  yet  was  always  in  harmony  with  itself.  Among 
the  many  relatives  of  all  ages  and  characters  who  visited 
him,  and  the  guests  who,  especially  during  summer,  were 
welcomed  to  Linlathen,  there  were  of  course  those  who  could 
not  sympathise  with  him  in  his  deepest  interests.  If,  how- 
ever, they  cared  for  literature,  in  Mr.  Erskine  they  found 
one  who  was  at  home  in  all  that  was  finest  and  most  soul- 
like in  literature,  ancient  and  modern,  and  his  bright  and 
sympathetic  remarks  or  questions  drew  out  the  stores  even 
of  the  most  reserved.  The  Classics  he  knew  and  loved  to 
speak  of,  Shakespeare  he  knew  only  less  well  than  the  Bible, 
and  his  conversation  was  edged  with  many  apt  quotations 
from  him.  Even  when  sportsmen  were  his  guests,  men 
whose  chief  delights  lay  at  Melton  Mowbray,  he  found 
some  bond  of  sympathy  with  them,  something  that  made 
them  take  pleasure  in  his  society.  He  had  a  wonderful 
art  of  setting  every  one  at  ease,  and  drawing  out 
the  best  side  of  every  character.  In  this,  his  own 
natural  graciousness  was  perfectly  seconded  by  his  sister 
Mrs.  Stirling,  who  so  long  presided  as  the  lady  of  the 
house  at  Linlathen.  She  was  of  a  character  hardly 
less  remarkable  than  her  brother,  like-minded  with  him 
in  her  aims  and  in  the  spirit  she  was  of,  but  with  more 
turn  for  the  practical  affairs  of  life.  She  stood,  in  a  large 
measure,  between  Mr.  Erskine  and  the  buffets  of  the 
outward  world,  and  allowed  his  life  to  flow  on  in  its  own 
natural  current.  How  much  her  presence  contributed  to 
make  Linlathen  the  well-ordered  and  happy  home  that 
it  was  can  hardly  be  over-estimated.  Never  perhaps 
were  brother  and  sister  more  fitted  to  each  other,  more 
able  each  to  supply  what  the  other  had  not,  and  so  to 
make  a  home  in  which  all  the  requirements  of  refined 
Christian  society  were  combined.     Very  seldom  has  a  home 

2  L 


530  REMINISCENCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE 

been  seen  in  which  perfect  ease,  refinement,  and  high  intelli- 
gence so  blended  with  the  most  sunny  graciousness  and 
all-pervading  Christian  charity.  No  one,  however  great  a 
stranger  he  might  be  when  he  entered  that  house,  could 
there  be  a  stranger  long,  and  none  of  the  many  who  visited 
Mr.  Erskine  and  his  sister  there, — neighbours,  high  and  low, 
guests  from  far  and  near, — will  ever  forget  it.  Another 
element  was  added  to  the  family  group  by  his  sister  Mrs. 
Paterson,  who  generally  spent  a  great  part  of  the  summer 
at  Linlathen.  She  was  so  much  of  an  invalid  that  she  could 
not  come  down-stairs  regularly,  but  when  she  was  able  for 
this,  or  when  visitors  had  an  opportunity  of  conversing 
with  her  in  private,  they  found  in  her  an  interest  in  things 
as  keen  and  an  intelligence  as  active  as  her  brother's,  com- 
bined with  a  spirit  singularly  gentle,  attractive,  and 
elevating.  To  one  looking  back  on  the  Linlathen  of  those 
years,  it  seems  to  represent  the  very  Scottish  counterpart 
of  that  gentle  and  high-souled  English  family -group  which 
is  portrayed  in  the  '  Memorials  of  a  Quiet  Life.' 

I  remember  calling  one  summer  afternoon  at  Mrs. 
Paterson's  house  in  Morningside,  about  the  year  1863  or 
1864, 1  think.  Mrs.  Paterson,  Mrs.  Stirling,  and  her  sister- 
in-law  Mrs.  James  Erskine,  were  alone  together  in  the 
drawing-room.  For  an  hour  I  sat  while  they  talked  of  the 
things  nearest  their  own  hearts  and  their  brother's,  in  a 
natural  yet  most  unworldly  strain,  such  as  conversation 
seldom  attains.  Mrs.  Paterson  perhaps  spoke  most,  but  all 
three  took  part.  It  was  early  summer,  and  the  western  sun 
was  shedding  a  soft  light  along  the  green  slopes  of  the  Pent- 
land  hills,  visible  from  the  drawing-room  window.  When  the 
hour  was  ended  I  came  away,  but  a  soothing  sense  remained 
long  after,  as  though  for  a  brief  while  I  had  been  allowed 
to  overhear  a  high  pure  strain  of  heavenly  music.  I  felt 
that  all  three  were,  not  by  natural  kinship  only,  but  by 


BY  PRINCIPAL  SHAIPP.  531 

the  kinship  of  the  heart,  spiritual  sisters  of  their  gifted 
brother. 

With  any  of  his  guests  at  Linlathen  who  cared  for  it, 
Mr.  Erskine  used  to  continue  his  talk,  not  only  in  his 
library  and  along  the  corridor,  but  in  walks  about  the 
place,  or  in  a  longer  walk  to  the  bare  bleak  links  of 
Monifieth,  where  the  outlook  was  on  the  eastern  sea.  A 
few  of  his  sayings  during  such  walks  recur  to  me. 

He  said  more  than  once  that  all  the  most  deeply  devout 
men  he  had  known  had  been  brought  up  as  Calvinists. 
'  How  then  do  you  reconcile  this  fact  with  the  life-long 
conflict  you  have  maintained  against  Calvinism?'  'In 
this  way,'  he  would  reply ;  '  Calvinism  makes  God  and 
the  thought  of  Him  all  in  all,  and  makes  the  creature 
almost  as  nothing  before  Him.  So  it  engenders  a  deep 
reverence,  a  profound  humility  and  self-abasement,  which 
are  the  true  beginnings  of  all  religion.  It  exalts  God 
infinitely  above  the  creature.  In  this,  Calvinism  is  true 
and  great,  and  I  honour  it.  What  I  cannot  accept  is 
its  conception  of  God  as  One  in  whom  power  is  the  para- 
mount attribute,  to  which  a  loving  righteousness  is  made 
quite  subordinate,  and  its  restriction  of  the  love  of  God  in 
a  way  which  seems  to  me  not  righteousness,  but  par- 
tiality.' 

Another  time,  when  speaking  of  how  orthodoxy,  cor- 
rectness of  intellectual  belief,  is  made  in  Scotland  the  test 
and  synonym  of  goodness,  he  used  to  tell  of  a  gardener  he 
had  at  Linlathen.  The  old  man  was,  like  many  of  his 
countrymen,  a  great  theologian,  and  piqued  himself  on  the 
correctness  of  his  belief.  One  day,  when  speaking  of  the 
good  men  he  had  known,  the  gardener  said,  after  enumerat- 
ing several,  '  And  there  was  Mr.  Campbell  of  the  Eow ; 
he  was  a  vara  gude  man,  but  than  he  devairged  (diverged),' 
— as  if  after  that  there  was  no  more  to  be  said  for  him. 


532  REMINISCENCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE 


His  relations  to  his  neighbours  at  Linlathen  of  all  classes 
were  of  the  kindliest.  I  remember  hearing  of  his  having 
lost  a  number  of  his  best  Southdown  ewes  which  were 
feeding  in  the  park.  The  keeper  watched,  and  found  that 
the  destroyer  was  a  large  Newfoundland  dog,  which  he 
caught  in  the  act.  The  dog  belonged  to  a  resident  in  the 
neighbouring  town  of  Broughty-Ferry.  The  case  went 
before  the  Sheriff,  and  the  owner  of  the  dog  was  condemned 
to  pay  to  Mr.  Erskine  the  value  of  all  the  ewes  which  had 
been  destroyed.  Some  time  afterwai'ds  Mr.  Erskine  was 
taken  with  compunction,  as  if  he  had  been  too  hard  on  his 
neighbour ;  so  he  sent  him  from  his  own  flock  a  present  of 
fully  as  many  ewes  as  had  been  paid  for.  One  never  heard 
how  this  act  was  regarded  in  the  district,  whether  as  the 
deed  of  unselfish  kindness  that  it  was,  or  as  one  of  eccen- 
tricity and  weakness. 

In  earlier  days  of  his  discipleship,  when  he  and  Mr. 
Campbell  first  saw  a  light  in  God's  love  which  not  many 
others  then  acknowledged,  Mr.  Erskine,  as  is  well  known, 
had  for  a  time  expounded,  and  even  preached,  to  audiences 
more  or  less  large,  at  Linlathen  and  elsewhere.  He  had, 
however,  long  ceased  to  do  this  when  I  first  knew  him. 
His  voice  was  only  heard  in  his  morning  reading  of  the 
Bible  and  in  prayer  with  his  own  household  in  the  library. 
The  impression  of  him,  as  he  conducted  that  simple  wor- 
ship, those  who  shared  it  will  always  remember.  His  daily 
walk,  either  in  going  or  returning,  often  brought  him  to 
some  cottage  where  a  sick  or  aged  person  lay,  and  he  would 
request  his  companion  to  remain  for  a  little,  while  he  went 
in  to  pay  his  friendly  visit.  Many  records  might  have 
been  gathered  of  persons  around  Linlathen,  at  Broughty- 
Ferry  and  elsewhere,  who  being  in  darkness  and  distress 
of  mind,  and  finding  no  relief  from  the  ministrations 
of    the    ordinary    religious    teachers,    first    found     light 


BY  PRINCIPAL  SHAIRP.  533 


and  peace  from  words  spoken  to  them  by  Mr.  Erskine. 
One  can  readily  understand  how  this  should  be.  It  was 
not  only  that  his  large  human  sympathy,  and  his  deep 
moral  and  spiritual  hold  of  truth,  fitted  him  to  reach 
hearts  that  were  in  darkness.  But  it  was  because  when 
he  spoke  to  them  of  God  and  His  love,  he  did  not  speak, 
as  at  second-hand,  of  something  he  had  read  in  a  book, 
but  he  witnessed  directly  to  that  which  he  had  himself 
known  and  tried. 

For  the  last  ten  or  twelve  years  before  Mrs.  Stirling  died, 
he  generally  took  a  house  in  Edinburgh,  where  they  passed 
the  months  from  January  till  May.  This  suited  his  social 
disposition,  and  gave  him  exactly  that  kind  of  society  which 
he  most  relished.  He  thus  was  able  to  continue  his  inter- 
course with  such  of  his  early  companions  as  still  survived,  with 
his  cousin  the  scholarly  Mr.  George  Dundas  (afterwards  Lord 
Manor),  with  Lord  Eutherfurd,  and  with  the  aged  Mr.  James 
Mackenzie,  son  of  '  the  Man  of  Feeling.'  In  this  way,  too, 
he  saw  something  of  younger  men,  who  were  drawn  to  him 
by  reverence  and  affection,  and  whom  he  welcomed  with  a 
sympathy  at  once  fatherly  and  fraternal.  Those  winters  in 
Edinburgh  gave  him,  moreover,  opportunities  of  seeing  many 
relatives  and  friends  not  easily  seen  at  other  times,  and  each 
winter  brought  his  two  old  and  like-minded  friends,  Mr. 
Duncan  of  Parkhill  and  Mr.  Campbell  (of  Kow)  to  be  his, 
guests  for  a  time.  In  his  house  in  Edinburgh  he  used  to 
exercise  the  same  loving  hospitality  as  at  Linlathen.  '  What 
is  the  end  of  all  social  gatherings  of  men  V  some  one  asks, 
and  answers,  'A  little  conversation,  high,  clear,  and  spiri- 
tual.' This  result  was  attained,  if  ever,  at  the  board 
where  Mr.  Erskine  presided.  He  used  to  gather  round 
his  table  small  parties,  seldom  more  than  eight  or  ten,  of 
persons  well  assorted,  who  would  like  to  meet  each  other. 
Never  were  there   more   delightful    evenings, — anecdote, 


534  REMINISCENCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE 

pleasant  humour,  and  thought  flowed  freely  and  naturally, 
and  you  came  away  feeling  that  the  hours  had  passed,  not 
only  enjoyably,  but  profitably.  Of  a  visit  to  Mr.  Erskine 
in  1864,  Mr.  Campbell  wrote  : — '  Mr.  Erskine  is  so  varied 
and  full,  passing  so  easily  to  what  Professor  Thomson,  who 
dined  with  us  yesterday,  or  Professor  Rogers,  who  dined 
with  us  to-day,  contribute  from  their  special  stores,  draw- 
ing them  out  as  an  intelligent  questioner  does,  and  often 
by  natural  transition  passing  to  what  is  higher.' 

His  forenoons  were  spent  partly  in  writing  letters ;  some- 
times in  giving  more  regular  expression  to  his  favourite 
thoughts ;  partly,  also,  in  reading.  His  love  of  literature 
was  intense,  with  a  keen  sense  of  what  was  most  excellent. 
I  have  already  noted  his  familiarity  with  Shakespeare,  and 
how  readily  he  drew  on  that  great  storehouse.  If  you  went 
into  his  sitting-room  on  a  forenoon  during  those  years, 
you  would  probably  find  him  engaged  in  reading  some  of 
the  speeches  of  Thucydides,  or  a  dialogue  of  Plato.  His 
Greek  was  kept  in  continual  exercise  by  the  close  study  of 
the  New  Testament  in  the  original.  He  used  to  say  to  me 
that  he  had  such  a  thirst  for  learning,  and  admiration  of  it, 
that  he  believed  he  would  have  made  himself  a  learned  man, 
had  it  not  been  for  the  early  failure  of  his  eyesight.  This 
confined  his  reading  for  some  years  to  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  a  day.  What  more  he  overtook  was  by  the  tedious 
process  of  listening  to  a  reader.  This  inability  to  study 
cast  him  back  on  his  own  thoughts,  and  did  much  to 
foster  that  inwardness  of  mind  which  was  natural  to  him. 

During  those  winters  his  appearance,  as  he  passed  along 
Princes  Street  to  and  from  his  afternoon  visit  to  the  New 
Club,  must  have  struck  most  passers-by, — with  his  broad 
hat  or  wideawake,  and  his  quaint,  antique,  weather-fending 
guise.  Walking  with  him  on  one  such  occasion,  I 
observed  that  he  stopped  and  spoke  very  cordially  with  a 


BY  PRINCIPAL  SUA  IP  P.  535 

distinguished  ecclesiastical  leader  of  the  time,  who  was  well 
known  to  disagree  with  him,  and  strongly  to  disapprove  of 

his  views.     '  You  seem  very  cordial  with  Dr. .'     With 

a  smile,  he  answered,  'He  tries  to  cut  me,  hut  I  never 
allow  him.  I  always  walk  in  before  him,  and  make  him 
shake  hands/  On  another  occasion  as  1  walked  with  him, 
we  forgathered  with  Dr.  John  Brown,  and  we  three  stood 
talking  together  for  some  time.  When  Dr.  Brown  passed 
on,  he  said,  '  I  like  him  ;  he  is  a  fine  vernacular  man  ;  he 
can  speak  to  you  in  a  whisper.  Have  you  ever  observed 
it  is  only  Scotchmen  who  can  speak  in  a  whisper  ]  The 
English  cannot  do  it.' 

One  Sunday  he  and  I  had  been'  together  to  church, 
where  a  young  divine  preached  a  somewhat  rambling,  un- 
connected discourse.  We  came  away,  and  said  nothing. 
Some  time  afterwards,  as  we  were  walking  in  silence,  he 
stopped,  and  looking  round  to  me  said,  '  The  educated  mind 
desiderates  a  nexus,'  and  then,  without  any  more,  passed  on. 
These  are  small  things,  hardly  worth  repeating,  but 
they  are  characteristic,  and  to  those  at  least  who  knew 
him,  may  serve  to  recall,  not  only  his  tone  of  voice,  but  the 
quiet  smile  with  which  he  used  to  say  such  things. 

Among  the  last  of  the  occasions  on  which  he  was  allowed 
to  receive  his  friends  in  Edinburgh  was  in  the  spring  of 
1866,  when  his  old  and  much-valued  friend  Mr.  Carlyle, 
after  a  long  absence,  revisited  Edinburgh  to  be  installed  as 
Rector  of  the  University.  Many  will  still  remember  the 
wise  and  gracious  courtesy  with  which  he  then  performed 
the  duties  of  hospitality,  on  the  one  hand  securing  for  his 
guest  the  repose  he  needed  and  desired,  on  the  other 
according  to  as  many  as  possible  the  coveted  privilege  of 
meeting  the  sage  of  Chelsea.  On  the  day  on  which  Mr. 
Carlyle  addressed  the  students  in  the  large  Music  Hall,  Mr. 
Erskine,  knowing  how  great  was  the  effort  for  a  retired  man 


536  REMINISCENCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSK1NE 

of  Mr.  Carlyle's  years,  and  anxious  how  he  might  feel  after 
it  was  over,  had  asked  no  one  to  dinner  for  that  day.  When 
the  address  was  well  achieved,  and  Mr.  Erskine  found  that 
Mr.  Carlyle  was  none  the  worse,  but  rather  the  better  for  the 
deliverance,  he  asked  two  or  three  of  his  intimate  friends 
to  come  and  join  a  quiet  dinner-party.  That  evening  Sir 
William  Stirling  Maxwell  sat  at  the  foot  of  the  table,  and 
with  nice  tact  gave  such  turn  to  the  conversation  as  allowed 
fullest  scope  to  the  sage  who  has  praised  silence  so  well, 
but  fortunately  does  not  practise  it.  Eeleased  from  his 
burden,  Mr.  Carlyle  was  in  excellent  spirits,  and  discoursed 
in  his  most  genial  mood  of  his  old  Dumfriesshire  remem- 
brances, of  the  fate  of  James  iv.,  and  other  matters  of 
Scottish  history,  and  of  the  then  Emperor  Napoleon,  of 
whom,  as  may  be  imagined,  he  was  no  admirer.  Those 
days  when  Mr.  Erskine  received  Mr.  Carlyle  as  las  guest 
were  among  the  last  of  his  hospitalities  in  Edinburgh. 

During  the  next  winter  his  two  sisters,  first  Mrs. 
Stirling,  soon  after  Mrs.  Paterson,  who  had  been  the  chief 
earthly  supports  of  his  life,  were  removed,  and  his  house 
was  left  to  him  desolate.  The  staff  of  family  affection,  on 
which  he  had  so  long  leaned,  was  broken ;  the  hand  which 
for  years  had  arranged  all  the  outward  framework  of  his  life 
was  withdrawn.  All  that  was  identified  with  his  youth,  all 
that '  his  eye  loved  and  his  heart  held  converse  with '  from 
childhood,  had  now  passed  out  of  sight.  '  He  was  as  a  man 
moving  his  goods  into  a  far  country,  who  at  intervals  and 
by  portions  sends  them  before  him,  till  his  present  abode 
is  wellnigh  unfurnished.  He  had  sent  forward  his  friends  on 
their  journey,  while  he  himself  stayed  behind,  that  there 
might  be  those  in  heaven  to  have  thoughts  of  him,  to  look 
out  for  him,  and  receive  him  when  his  Lord  should  call.' 
These  words,  in  which  Dr.  Newman  describes  the  old  age 
of  St.  John,  truly  represent  Mr.  Erskine  during  those  last 


BY  PRINCIPAL  SHAIRP.  537 

years.  Though  he  passed  his  few  remaining  winters  in 
Edinburgh,  yet  he  never  again  after  Mrs.  Stirling's  death 
took  a  house  there.  In  summers  at  Linlathen  he  used  to 
say,  'As  I  go  to  bed  at  night  I  have  to  pass  two  empty 
rooms,  which  I  never  passed  before  without  entering  them.' 
Younger  relatives  gathered  round  him.  His  nephew  and 
niece  especially,  who  lived  with  him  at  Linlathen,  did  for  him 
all  that  the  most  devoted  and  watchful  love  could  do.  But 
his  own  strength  and  health  were  declining,  and  there  was 
an  oppression  about  his  heart,  which  at  times  was  distress- 
ing. Still,  during  those  last  years  he  laboured  on  assiduously 
to  complete  a  book  which  he  had  begun,  when  roused  by  a 
strong  sense  of  the  spiritual  blindness  betrayed  in  Kenan's 
much-talked-of '  Vie  de  J6sus.'  That  book,  notwithstanding 
all  its  outward  grace  of  style  and  felicitous  description, 
seemed  to  him  at  the  core  so  short-sighted  and  misleading, 
that  after  a  silence  of  more  than  thirty  years  he  once  more 
took  his  pen  to  say  something  in  reply  to  it.  He  utterly 
repudiated  the  character  which  it  drew  of  our  Lord,  and 
almost  resented  the  fatuity  which  could  separate  with  a 
sharp  line  the  morality  of  the  Gospels  from  their  doctrinal 
teaching  as  to  Christ  Himself.  He  used  to  say,  '  As  you  see 
in  many  English  churches  the  Apostles'  Creed  placed  on 
one  side  of  the  altar,  on  the  other  the  Ten  Commandments, 
so  Kenan  would  divide  as  with  a  knife  the  moral  precepts 
of  the  Gospels  from  their  doctrines.  Those  he  would 
retain,  these  he  would  throw  away.  Can  anything  be  more 
blind]  As  well  might  you  expect  the  stem  and  leaves 
of  a  flower  to  flourish  when  you  had  cut  away  the  root, 
as  to  retain  the  morality  of  the  Gospels  when  you  have  dis- 
carded its  doctrinal  basis.  Faith  in  Christ,  and  God  in 
Christ,  is  the  only  root  from  which  true  Christian  morality 
can  grow.'  This,  or  something  like  this,  was  what  he  used 
to  say,   and  to  bring  this   out   fully  in  connection  with 


538  REMINISCENCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE 

his  other  views  of  the  inner  and  eternal  relation  of  the  Son 
to  the  Father,  and  of  the  Father  to  the  Son,  was  a  work 
which  he  desired  to  accomplish  hefore  the  end.  The 
whole  line  of  thought  which  he  wished  to  express  stood  out 
clear  before  his  own  mind  to  the  last,  but  the  physical 
labour  of  committing  it  to  paper  and  arranging  it  was 
great,  almost  too  great,  for  him.  Yet  he  never  ceased 
trying  to  put  it  into  shape,  and  if  he  died  without  accom- 
plishing all  he  wished  to  do,  completed  chapters  were  found 
sufficient  to  appear,  after  his  death,  in  his  last  work,  '  The 
Spiritual  Order.' 

The  last  visit  which  I  remember  having  paid  to  him  at 
Linlathen  was  on  the  sixth  day  of  July,  1868, — a  beautiful 
summer  day.  I  had  arrived  there  in  the  forenoon,  and  after 
lunch  he  asked  me  to  take  a  drive  with  him.  We  drove  to 
the  manse  of  Mains,  to  make  his  first  call  on  a  young  minister 
who  had  been  recently  placed  there.  Mains  was  a  parish 
in  which  he  had  taken  much  interest,  and  which,  chiefly 
through  his  influence,  had  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  a  suc- 
cession of  unusually  good  ministers.  Among  those  whom 
Mr.  Erskine  had  helped  to  place  there,  and  with  whom  he 
had  afterwards  lived  in  much  intimacy,  were  the  late  Dr. 
John  Kobertson,  afterwards  of  the  Cathedral  Church, 
Glasgow,  and  the  Rev.  John  M'Murtrie,  now  minister  of 
St.  Bernard's,  Edinburgh. 

It  was  a  day  of  delightful  sunshine,  and  as  we  drove  to 
Mains  the  genial  air  seemed  to  touch  the  springs  of  old 
feeling  and  memory  with  him.  He  went  back  in  retrospect 
to  early  companions, — the  large  cousinhood  who  used  to 
meet  at  Airth  and  Kippendavie.  He  said  how  he  loved 
the  scenery  of  Stirlingshire  and  Perthshire,  with  the  green- 
ness and  luxuriance  of  their  woodland, — not  without,  I 
think,  a  silent  mental  contrast  with  the  bare  landscape  and 
stunted  timber  of  the  eastern  coast,  in  which  his  own  lot 


BY  PRINCIPAL  S  HAIR  P.  539 

had  been  cast.  He  said,  if  I  remember  right,  that  he  had 
often  had  a  dream  of  spending  his  last  summers  in  those 
western  regions  which  were  so  dear  to  him  in  memory. 

After  we  had  returned  from  our  drive,  we  sat  for  some 
time  on  the  lawn  just  over  the  Dighty  Water,  which  ran 
underneath  the  bank  on  the  top  of  which  the  house  stands. 
It  was  about  six  o'clock  p.m.,  and  the  sun  was  shining 
warm  on  us  as  we  sat,  and  beautifying  the  landscape  near 
and  far.  After  talking  for  some  time,  he  asked  me  if  I 
remembered  Mr.  Standfast  in  the  '  Pilgrim's  Progress,'  and 
his  words  when  he  came  to  the  bank  of  the  stream :  '  The 
thoughts  of  what  I  am  going  to,  and  of  the  conduct  that 
waits  for  me  on  the  other  side,  doth  lie  as  a  glowing  coal  at 
my  heart.  .  .'  And  then,  looking  across  the  Dighty  to  its 
farther  bank,  he  added,  '  I  think  that  within  a  year  from 
this  I  shall  be  on  the  other  side.' 

He  then,  I  think,  spoke  of  the  awful  silence  of  God,  how 
it  sometimes  became  oppressive,  and  the  heart  longed  to 
hear,  in  answer  to  its  cry,  some  audible  voice.  Then  he 
quoted  that  word,  '  Be  not  silent  to  me,  0  Lord  :  lest  if 
Thou  be  silent  to  me,  I  become  like  them  that  go  down 
into  the  pit ; '  and  then  I  know  he  added,  '  But  it  has  not 
always  been  silence  to  me.  I  have  had  one  revelation ;  it 
is  now,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  a  matter  of  memory  with  me. 
It  was  not  a  revelation  of  anything  that  was  new  to  me. 
After  it,  I  did  not  know  anything  which  I  did  not  know 
before.  But  it  was  a  joy  for  which  one  might  bear  any 
sorrow, — "  Joie,  joie,  pleurs  de  joie,"  as  was  the  title  of  a 
tract  I  used  to  read  at  Geneva.  I  felt  the  power  of  love, 
that  God  is  love,  that  He  loved  me,  that  He  had  spoken  to 
me,' — and  then,  after  a  long  pause, — '  that  He  had  broken 
silence  to  me.'  As  he  spoke  he  touched  me  quickly  on  the 
arm,  as  if  to  indicate  the  direct  impact  from  on  high  of 
which  he  had  been  aware.     As  he  walked  away,  leaning 


540  REMINISCENCES  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE 

on  my  arm,  round  the  west  end  of  the  house,  towards  the 
door  he  added  :  '  I  know  many  persons  in  the  other  world, 
and  I  would  like  to  see  them  again.'  This  was,  as  far  as  I 
remember,  the  last  visit  I  paid  him  at  Linlathen.  The 
conversation  I  have  just  given  was  so  remarkable  that  I 
made  a  note  of  it  immediately,  and  I  have  given  it  as  I 
wrote  it  down  at  the  time. 

During  the  next  two  winters  (1868-69  and  1869-70) 
I  saw  him  from  time  to  time  in  Edinburgh. 

One  thing  very  remarkable  during  those  last  years 
must  have  struck  all  who  conversed  intimately  with 
him, — his  ever  deepening  sense  of  the  evil  of  sin,  and 
the  personal  way  in  which  he  took  this  home  to  himself. 
Small  things  done  or  said  years  ago  would  come  back  upon 
him  and  lie  on  his  conscience,  often  painfully.  Things 
which  few  other  men  would  have  ever  thought  of  again, 
and  which  when  told  to  others  would  seem  trifling  or  harm- 
less, were  grievous  to  him  in  remembrance.  '  I  know  that 
God  has  forgiven  me  for  these  things,'  he  would  say,  *  but 
I  cannot  forgive  myself.'  How  far  this  burdened  sense 
was  connected  with  physical  oppression  about  the  heart 
no  one  can  determine.  He  himself  would  have  been  among 
the  last  to  accept  the  common  explanation  of  spiritual 
malady  by  merely  bodily  causes.  This,  however,  I  believe, 
is  true,  that  after  that  great  effusion  of  blood,  which  was 
the  prelude  of  the  end,  had  relieved  his  heart,  the  rest 
was,  as  Mr.  Campbell  writing  at  the  time  expressed  it,  all 
peace, — love,  with  perfect  clearness  of  mind.  I  was  not 
privileged  to  see  him  during  that  solemn  interval  when 
he  lay  waiting  for  the  end,  and  speaking  words  full  of 
comfort  and  light  to  all  those  who  were  around  him. 

But  his  funeral  day  I  remember  well.  It  was  a  calm 
bright  day  of  March.  The  funeral  prayers  of  the  English 
Church   were   read    in   his    own   library,   where    he  had 


BY  PRINCIPAL  SHAIRP.  541 

so  often  prayed  alone  and  in  the  family.  He  was  laid 
beside  his  mother,  and  the  brother  he  so  revered,  in 
Monifieth  Churchyard,  which  is  situated  on  the  estuary 
of  Tay,  where  it  broadens  out  to  meet  the  ocean.  The 
churchyard  was  filled  with  his  kindred,  his  friends,  and 
his  neighbours,  and  over  that  place  and  company  there 
seemed  to  rest  for  the  time  a  holy  calm  in  harmony  with 
the  saintly  spirit  that  had  departed.  The  thoughts  of  others 
far  away  were  centred  in  that  churchyard  on  that  day. 

One  who  had  in  her  childhood  often  listened  to  his 
voice,  and  had  since  then  been  long  an  invalid  con- 
fined to  her  room,1  breathed  from  her  sickbed  these  touch- 
ing words  as  she  thought  of  that  day.  The  image  in  the 
third  verse  especially  all  who  knew  him  will  understand. 

ASLEEP. 

March  28th,  1870. 

Toss,  ye  wild  waves 

Upon  the  shore, 
He  is  at  rest 

For  evermore. 

Moan  o'er  the  surf, 

Thou  wind  so  drear  ; 
Moan,  sob,  and  wail ; 

He  will  not  hear. 

Close  by  he  lies  ; 

But  a  long  sleep, 
His  wondrous  smile 

Enchained  doth  keep. 

Roll,  thou  wild  sea, 

Against  the  shore, 
He  is  at  rest 

For  Evermore. 

1  Miss  C.  Noel,  daughter  of  liis  old  friend  the  Hon.  and  Rev.  Gerard  Noel. 


APPENDIX. 


No.  I. — Page  100. 

EXTRACTS    FROM   "  THE  UNCONDITIONAL    FREENESS  OF  THE 
GOSPEL." 

The  leading  ideas  in  the  "  Unconditional  Freeness  "  are 
sufficiently  indicated  in  the  following  extracts,  taken  from 
the  fourth  edition  :  — 

"  The  medicinal  virtue  of  the  Gospel  lies  in  the  mani- 
festation of  that  holy  love  with  which  God  so  loved  the 
world  as  to  give  His  only  begotten  Son  as  an  atonement 
for  its  sins.  Holy  love  is  the  great  principle  developed 
in  the  Gospel.  It  is  the  union  of  an  infinite  abhorrence 
towards  sin,  and  an  infinite  love  towards  the  sinner.  This 
mysterious  history  is  the  mighty  instrument  with  which 
the  Spirit  of  God  breaks  the  power  of  sin  in  the  heart,  and 
establishes  holy  gratitude  and  filial  dependence." — P.  1 6. 

"  The  use  of  faith  is  not  to  remove  the  penalty  or  make 
the  pardon  better, — for  the  penalty  is  removed  and  the 
pardon  is  proclaimed  whether  we  believe  it  or  not, — but 
to  give  the  pardon  a  moral  influence,  by  which  it  may  heal 
the  spiritual  diseases  of  the  heart,  which  influence  it  cannot 
have  unless  it  is  believed." — P.  22. 

"  Men  are  not,  according  to  the  gospel  system,  pardoned 
on  account  of  their  belief  of  the  pardon,  but  they  are 
sanctified  by  a  belief  of  that  pardon,  and  unless  the  belief 
of  it  produces  this  effect,  neither  the  pardon  nor  the  belief 


544  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  app. 

are  of  any  use.  The  pardon  of  the  Gospel  is  a  spiritual 
medicine ;  faith  is  nothing  more  than  the  taking  of  that 
medicine ;  and  if  the  spiritual  health  or  sanctification  is 
not  produced,  neither  the  spiritual  medicine  nor  the  taking 
of  the  medicine  are  of  any  avail ;  they  have  failed  of  their 
object."— P.  23. 

"  The  gratuitousness  of  the  Gospel,  then,  consists  in  the 
unrestricted  freeness  of  the  pardon  which  it  proclaims." — 
P.  26. 

"  The  Gospel  reveals  to  us  the  existence  of  a  fund  of 
divine  love  containing  in  it  a  propitiation  for  all  sins,  and 
this  fund  is  general  to  the  whole  race,  every  individual  has 
a  property  in  it,  of  the  same  kind  that  he  has  in  the  com- 
mon light  and  air  of  the  world  which  he  appropriates  and 
uses  simply  by  opening  his  mouth  or  his  eyes.  Is  it  not 
clear  that  as  soon  as  any  one  really  knows  that  such  a 
fund  exists,  and  that  it  is  indeed  the  gift  of  God  to  the 
world  and  the  common  property  of  all  the  individuals  in 
the  world,  just  as  the  natural  air  and  light  is,  he  will 
immediately  infer  his  own  particular  interest  in  it,  and 
enter  into  the  enjoyment  of  it,  and  he  will  make  the  blessed 
discovery  which  no  tongue  can  rightly  describe,  and  no 
mere  intelligence  can  rightly  conceive,  even  that  he  him- 
self has  a  possession,  an  unalienable,  an  everlasting  posses- 
sion in  the  heart  of  God?"— P.  88. 

"  I  know  that  justification  is  generally  considered  to  mean 
pardon,  or  the  imputation  of  Christ's  righteousness,  and  I 
believe  that  sometimes  it  may  have  this  meaning  in  the 
Bible.  But  yet  I  am  persuaded,  by  reasons  which  I  shall 
afterwards  explain,  that  it  chiefly  bears  the  meaning  which 
I  am  now  attributing  to  it,  namely,  a  sense  of  pardon,  or 
of  acceptance,  or  having  the  conscience  purged  of  guilt, — and 
that  justification  by  faith  always  means  a  sense  of  acceptance 
and  safety  arising  from  a  belief  of  that  accepted  propitiation 


THE  UNCONDITIONAL  FREENESS:  545 


which  has  been  made  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world." — Pp. 
89-91. 

"  Now,  if  a  man  really  looks  to  his  faith  in  anything  as 
the  ground  of  his  pardon  or  hope  before  God,  he  is  as 
much  nourishing  the  spirit  of  independence,  and  as  much 
walking  in  that  spirit,  as  if  he  trusted  in  his  obedience. 
Self  is  in  the  one  case,  as  well  as  in  the  other,  the  axis  on 
which  the  man  turns,  and  the  root  out  of  which  he  grows. 
And  he  can  scarcely  avoid  falling  into  this  error  in  some 
measure,  if  he  thinks  there  is  no  pardon  for  him  until  he 
believes.  For  if  the  pardon  does  not  exist  until  he  believes, 
and  immediately  exists  when  he  believes,  surely  his  belief 
has  something  to  do  in  making  it.  It  is  in  vain  to  tell  him, 
that  faith  does  not  make  it,  but  only  receives  it.  For  he 
may  ask,  Where  is  it  then  before  faith  receives  it  ]  If  my 
faith  only  receives  it,  it  must  have  been  in  existence  before 
my  faith.  The  only  idea  that  I  can  attach  to  the  expres- 
sion, receiving  the  pardon  by  faith,  is  that  of  believing  in  the 
pardon ;  but  in  order  to  this,  the  pardon  must  have  been 
a  real  pardon  before.  If  the  gospel,  as  it  stands  in  the 
Bible,  actually  includes  my  pardon,  then  it  is  clear,  that 
when  I  believe  the  gospel,  I  shall  also  believe  my  pardon 
as  a  part  of  it,  and  thus  my  faith  will  receive  the  pardon. 
But  if  the  gospel  does  not  in  itself  contain  my  pardon,  how 
can  my  belief  of  the  gospel  be  a  receiving  of  pardon  1  " — 
Pp.  95-7. 

"  If  the  gospel  Avere,  that  God  only  loved  those  who 
should  believe  in  Christ,  and  that  Christ  died  only  for  those 
who  should  believe  in  His  sacrifice,  it  is  clear  that  such  a 
gospel  does  not  embrace  my  pardon,  nor  the  assurance  of 
God's  love  to  me,  unless  I  am  a  believer;  and,  therefore, 
that  my  belief  in  such  a  gospel  can  give  me  no  comfort, 
nor  peace,  until  I  first  ascertain  that  I  believe  in  Christ. 
And  thus  my  belief  in  Christ  is  made  something  distinct 

2  M 


546  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  afp. 

from  a  belief  in  the  gospel,  and  is  only  a  prerequisite  con- 
dition in  order  to  my  drawing  comfort  from  the  gospel ; 
and  thus  also  pardon  and  the  love  of  God  are  made  rewards 
of  faith  in  Christ.  But  this  is  not  the  gospel  of  the  Bible, 
nor  the  view  of  faith  contained  in  the  Bible,  as  every  atten- 
tive reader  of  that  blessed  book  must  know." — P.  99. 

"  A  very  common  idea  of  the  object  of  the  gospel  is,  that 
it  is  to  show  how  men  may  obtain  pardon;  whereas,  in 
truth,  its  object  is  to  show  how  pardon  for  men  has  been 
obtained,  or  rather  to  show  how  God  has  taken  occasion, 
by  the  entrance  of  sin  into  the  world,  to  manifest  the  un- 
searchable riches  of  holy  compassion.  And  it  is  to  present 
this  most  important  truth  (as  I  cannot  but  consider  it)  to 
some  who  may  not  have  thought  of  it  before,  that  I  have 
published  this  book, — and  it  is  for  this  same  reason  that 
I  have  chosen  to  depart  from  the  common  phraseology  on 
the  subject, — because  I  have  found  the  common  phraseology 
liable  to  misinterpretation.  Thus  I  have  observed,  that 
even  the  phrase  free  offer  of  pardon  is  so  interpreted,  that 
the  very  existence  of  the  pardon  is  made  to  depend  on  the 
acceptance  of  the  offer.  The  benefit  of  the  pardon  does 
most  assuredly  depend  on  its  being  accepted,  but  the  pardon 
itself  is  laid  up  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  depends  on  nothing  but 
the  unchangeable  character  of  God." — Pp.  102-3. 

"When  I  consider  this  important  feature  of  the  first 
promise  (its  universality),  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  the 
modern  commentators  on  prophecy  have  reason,  when  they 
say  that  the  expectation  of  the  restitution  of  all  things 
occupies  a  much  less  space  in  the  common  announcements 
of  the  gospel,  or  in  the  thoughts  of  Christians  than  it  ought 
to  do.  It  is  the  chief  feature  of  that  gospel  which  was 
preached  to  Adam,  and  it  is  bequeathed  to  the  church  in 
the  last  words  of  inspiration  as  an  enduring  consolation 
and  expectation, — "  Behold,  I  come  quickly."     The  general 


n.  '  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  '  547 

statements  of  the  gospel  in  our  clays  relate  too  exclusively 
to  what  is  already  past,  and  to  the  individual  salvation  of 
each  believer.  Of  course  it  is  impossible  altogether  to 
separate  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  sacrifice  from  its  general 
and  future  results;  but  these  results  seem  to  me  not  brought 
forward  by  preachers  as  they  are  in  the  Bible.  I  do  not 
speak  of  the  detail  of  these  results,  nor  of  the  particular 
fulfilment  of  the  prophecies  which  relate  to  the  last  times, 
because  I  do  not  feel  myself  qualified  to  speak  on  these 
subjects  ;  but  I  speak  of  a  fixed  and  longing  expectation, 
of  the  sure  and  fast  approaching  accomplishment  of  those 
promises  which  announce  the  final  triumph  of  the  Messiah, 
the  establishment  of  His  reign  upon  earth,  the  manifestation 
of  the  sons  of  God,  and  the  full  development  of  all  those 
high  privileges  which  arise  out  of  their  union  with  their 
divine  Head.  This  doctrine  appears  to  me  now  in  a  very 
different  liejht  from  what  it  once  did." — P.  82. 


No.  II.— Page  139. 

EXTRACTS  FROM  "  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT." 

The  following  extracts,  from  the  second  edition,  are 
given  as  illustrative  of  the  testimonies  of  Mr.  Maurice  and 
M.  Vinet  :— 

"  But  why  was  this  suffering  of  our  nature  in  the  person 
of  Jesus  needful  1  It  was  a  fallen  nature  ;  a  nature  which 
had  fallen  by  sin,  and  which,  in  consequence  of  this,  lay 
under  condemnation.  He  came  into  it  as  a  new  head,  that 
He  might  take  it  out  of  the  fall,  and  redeem  it  from  sin, 


548  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKIME.  app. 

and  lift  it  up  to  God  ;  and  this  could  be  effected  only  by 
His  bearing  the  condemnation,  and  thus  manifesting,  through 
sorrow  and  death,  the  character  of  God,  and  the  character 
of  man's  rebellion ;  manifesting  God's  abhorrence  of  sin, 
and  the  full  sympathy  of  the  new  Head  of  the  nature  in 
that  abhorrence,  and  thus  eating  out  the  taint  of  the  fall, 
and  making  honourable  way  for  the  inpouring  of  the  new 
life  into  the  rebellious  body.  .  .  . 

"  "When  we  ask,  What  is  the  meaning  of  the  sufferings  of 
Christ ;  or  in  what  way  did  those  sufferings  tend  to  accom- 
plish the  purposes  for  which  he  had  left  the  bosom  of  the 
Father,  and  came  to  this  world  ]  we  ask  a  question  which,  in 
its  bearings,  involves  the  whole  character  and  purposes  of 
God,  and  the  whole  character  and  prospects  of  man.  If  this 
question  were  put  to  many  persons,  we  should  probably  get 
various  answers.  One  answer  that  would  be  pretty  gener- 
ally given  to  this  question  is,  '  that  He  came  to  save  sinners, 
and  that  He  could  accomplish  this  onlj*  by  suffering  in  their 
stead  the  punishment  due  to  their  sin,  because  thus  only 
their  salvation  could  be  reconciled  with  divine  justice,  and 
thus  only  could  it  become  a  righteous  thing  with  God  to 
remit  the  punishment  of  the  real  offenders.  In  this  way 
both  the  justice  of  God  and  His  love  were  magnified.  His 
justice,  in  demanding  the  full  penalty  of  the  law;  and  His 
love,  in  providing  a  substitute  to  stand  in  the  place  of  the 
real  offenders,  and  bear  that  for  them  which  would  have 
overwhelmed  them  in  everlasting  perdition,  if  they  had  been 
obliged  to  bear  it  themselves.'  I  believe  that  the  Spirit  of 
God  has  made  this  view  of  the  atonement  spirit  and  life  to 
many  souls — and  yet  I  believe  that,  with  some  truth  in  it, 
it  is  a  very  defective  view,  to  say  the  least  of  it. 

"  This  view  of  the  atonement,  which  is  generally  known 
by  the  name  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  substitution,  has,  I 
know,  been  held  by  many  living  members  of  His  body — 


II.  '  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT:  549 

and  yet  I  believe  that,  with  some  truth  in  it,  it  contains 
much  dangerous  error.  In  the  first  place,  I  may  observe, 
that  it  would  not  be  considered  justice  in  an  earthly  judge, 
were  he  to  accept  the  offered  sufferings  of  an  innocent  per- 
son as  a  satisfaction  for  the  lawful  punishment  of  a  guilty 
person.  And  as  the  work  of  Christ  was  wrought  to  declare 
and  make  manifest  the  righteousness  of  God,  not  only  to 
powers  and  principalities  in  heavenly  places,  but  to  men, 
to  the  minds  and  consciences  of  men — it  is  not  credible 
that  that  work  should  contain  a  manifestation  really  opposed 
to  their  minds  and  consciences.  Let  me  here  entreat  of  my 
reader  to  be  patient  and  not  to  misunderstand  me,  nor  to 
suppose  that,  by  using  this  language,  I  do  at  all  mean  to 
deny  or  bring  into  doubt  the  blessed  truth,  that  Christ 
tasted  death  for  every  man, — for  verily  and  indeed  I  believe 
that  Christ  did  taste  death  for  every  man,  and  that,  too, 
in  a  far  deeper  and  truer  sense  than  is  taught  by  the 
doctrine  of  substitution  in  its  ordinary  acceptation.  The 
humanly  devised  doctrine  of  substitution  has  come  in  place 
of,  and  has  cast  out  the  true  doctrine  of  the  headship  of 
Christ,  which  is  the  large,  and  glorious,  and  true  explana- 
tion of  those  passages  of  Scripture  which  are  commonly 
interpreted  as  teaching  substitution.  Christ  died  for 
every  man,  as  the  head  of  every  man — not  by  any  fiction  of 
law,  not  in  a  conventional  way,  but  in  reality  as  the  head 
of  the  whole  mass  of  the  human  nature,  which,  although 
composed  of  many  members,  is  one  thing, — one  body, — 
in  every  part  of  which  the  head  is  truly  present. 

"  If  my  right  hand  had  committed  murder,  and  my  left 
hand  had  committed  theft,  and  my  feet  had  been  swift  to 
shed  blood, — were  I  to  suffer  beheading  for  these  offences, 
no  one  would  say  that  my  head  had  been  the  substitute 
for  my  hands  and  my  feet.  And  although,  in  this  case,  it 
be  true,  that  the  planning  head  is  the  real  offender,  and 


550  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  app. 

therefore  is  the  proper  sufferer,  yet  the  force  of  the  com- 
parison is  not  thereby  destroyed,  for  even  if  these  mem- 
bers were  capable  of  independent  action,  they  would  be 
punished  in  the  punishment  of  the  head,  because  they  are 
all  really  contained  in  the  head,  in  virtue  of  its  being  the 
root  of  that  system  of  nerves,  which,  by  pervading  them 
all,  does  in  fact  sustain  them  all.  .  .  . 

"  And  secondly,  He  did  not  suffer  the  punishment  of  sin, 
as  the  doctrine  of  substitution  supposes,  to  dispense  with  our 
suffering  it,  but  to  change  the  character  of  our  suffering, 
from  an   unsanctified   and  unsanctifying  suffering,  into  a 
sanctified  and  sanctifying  suffering.     And  thus,  when  our 
Lord  himself  speaks  to  the  disciples  about  His  cross  and 
sufferings,  He  uniformly  calls  upon  them  to  take  up  their 
cross  and  follow  Him,  by  the  same  road  of  suffering.     This 
connection  is  marked  through  all  the  Evangelists,  and  must 
therefore  be  a  designed  connection. — See  Matt.  xvi.  21-25  ; 
Mark   viii.   31-35;    Luke  ix.    22-24;     John   xii.   23-26. 
And  Paul  desires  fellowship  in  Christ's  sufferings,  and  con- 
formity with  His  death.     The  substance  of  all  these  pas- 
sages proves  that  the  substitution  of  Christ  did  not  con- 
sist in  this,  that  He  did  or  suffered  something  instead  of 
men,  so  as  to  save  them  from  doing  or  suffering  it  for  them- 
selves.    And  this  agrees  with  the  obvious  fact,  that  Christ's 
death  does  not  save  the  believer  from  dying  a  natural  death, 
nor  does  His  sorrow  save  the  believer  from  sorrowing.    On 
the  contrary,  the  believer  dies  ;  and  moreover,  dies  daily, 
in  consequence  of  and  in  proportion  to  his  faith.     What 
Christ  did  for  us,  was  done  for  us  in  a  sense  and  with  a 
view  very  different  from  that  of  saving  us  from  doing  it 
ourselves.     He  fulfilled  the  law,  for  instance,  certainly  not 
with    the    view    of  saving  us  from    fulfilling   it,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  with  the  very  view  of  enabling  us  to  fulfil  it. 
For  the  salvation  of  Christ  consists  mainly  in  '  writing  the 


THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT'  551 


law  upon  our  hearts,' — and  He  made  Himself  a  sin-offering, 
'  that  the  righteousness  of  the  law  might  be  fulfilled  in  us, 
who  walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit.' 

"  When,  therefore,  it  is  said  that  Christ  did  or  does  things 
for  us,  it  is  not  meant  that  He  did  or  does  them  as  our  sub- 
stitute, but  as  our  head.  He  does  them  for  us,  as  a  root 
does  things  for  the  branches, — or  as  a  head  or  heart  does 
things  for  the  body.  .   .  . 

"  But  if  Jesus  did  not  suffer  punishment  to  dispense  with 
our  suffering  it,  what  has  He  accomplished  for  us  by  suffering 
for  us  1     Take  this  answer  in  the  meantime.     Sin  can  only 
be  burned  out  of  our  nature,  by  our  sense  of  its  misery, 
and  by  our  acquiescence  in  the  righteousness  of  that  misery 
— which  acquiescence  we  can  never  truly  give,  until  we  see 
the  holy  love  of  God  resting  upon  us,  and  manifesting  itself 
in  the  law  against  which  Ave  have  sinned,  and  in  the  misery 
which  is  inflicted  upon  us  through  our  sin,  and  on  account 
of  our  sin.     But  holy  love  is  a  thing  which  our  natural  life 
is  incapable  of  seeing ;  for  our  natural  life  is  consciously 
under  the  condemnation  of  sin,  and  is  bearing  its  punish- 
ment, and  it  cannot  draw  near  to  God,  or  look  on  God ; 
for   its    condemnation  implies  and   contains  a  separation 
from  God — it  therefore    cannot    know  love,  or  see  love, 
because  God  is  love — the  natural  life,  in  truth,  is  the  carnal 
mind,  which  is  enmity  against  God.     And  thus,  while  Ave 
continue  to  live  in  this  natural  life,  and  to  see  things  in  its 
light,  Ave  can  see  nothing  in  the  punishment  of  sin  but  what 
increases  our  fear,  and  enmity,  and  opposedness  to  God. 
And  thus  punishment  acts  as  a  poison  until  Ave  see  it  by 
the  light  of  another  life — an  uncondemned  life — which  has 
freedom  of  access  to  God,  and  which  can  see  His  love. 
Now,  this  is  the  great  thing  which  Christ  has  accomplished 
by  suffering  for  us ;  He  has  become  a  head  of  neAV  and  un- 
condemned life  to  every  man,  in  the  light  of  Avhich  we  may 


552  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  app. 

see  God's  love  in  the  law  and  in  the  punishment,  and  may 
thus  suffer  to  the  glory  of  God,  and  draw  out  from  the 
suffering  that  blessing  which  is  contained  in  it.  .  .  . 

"  The  work  of  Christ  is  thus  the  source  of  life.  It  was 
a  work  which  no  creature  could  have  done — a  work  which 
none  but  He  could  have  done — a  work  without  which  no 
man  could  have  been  saved — a  work,  to  attempt  to  do  which, 
or  to  add  to  which,  is  to  crucify  the  Son  of  God  afresh,  and 
without  which  no  man  ever  did  or  ever  could  have  done 
any  of  those  things  which  his  leader  and  head  and  God 
calls  on  him  to  do,  or  indeed  ever  could  reasonably  have 
been  called  on  to  do  them.  It  was  the  great  work  of 
atonement,  on  the  credit  of  which,  before  it  was  accom- 
plished, and  through  the  channel  of  which,  since  it  has 
been  accomplished,  the  love  of  God,  in  the  form  of  favour 
and  forgiveness  and  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  enabling  man  to 
glorify  God,  has  been  given  to  every  human  being." — 
Pp.  34-58. 

"  With  reference  to  what  is  written  in  the  2d  chapter  of 
this  book  on  the  subject  of  substitution,  let  me  beg  the 
reader's  attention  to  a  few  lines  more.  In  the  first  place, 
substitution  is  not  a  Bible  word,  but  I  do  not  wish  to  con- 
tend either  for  or  against  words  ;  I  wish  to  contend  for  the 
truth  of  God, — and  if  ever  I  have  unnecessarily  jarred 
against  the  feelings  of  any  child  of  God,  by  my  use  of  words, 
I  grieve  for  it  as  a  sin.  But  I  am  satisfied  that  I  have  not 
been  guilty  of  this  sin,  in  objecting  to  the  word  substitution 
as  characterising  the  relation  in  which  Christ  stood  to  us 
in  His  sufferings,  because  I  am  satisfied  that  there  is  a  dan- 
gerous error  connected  with  the  word.  Substitution  always 
supposes  that  the  person  suffering  in  the  place  of  another 
is  quite  distinct  from  that  other,  and  quite  free  from  all 
righteous  liability  to  the  doom  under  which  that  other  is 
sentenced  to  suffer.     This  is,  I  believe,  the  idea  generally 


in.  '  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION:  553 

associated  with  substitution, — and  it  is  as  conveying  this 
idea,  that  I  object  to  the  word,  for  this  idea  really  controverts 
the  true  humanity  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  For  though, 
whilst  he  was  yet  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  before  He 
took  our  nature,  He  was  free  from  all  liability  of  suffering, 
and  was  under  no  call  to  suffer  for  men,  except  the  impor- 
tunate call  of  His  own  everlasting  love,  yet  after  He  took 
our  nature,  and  became  the  man  Jesus  Christ — He  actually 
stood  Himself  within  the  righteous  liability  of  suffering, 
not  indeed  on  account  of  any  flaw  in  His  spotless  holiness, 
but  as  a  participator  of  that  flesh  which  lay  under  the  sen- 
tence of  sorrow  and  death,  and  being  now  engulfed  in  the 
horrible  pit  along  with  all  the  others,  He  could  only  deliver 
them,  by  being  first  delivered  Himself,  and  thus  opening  a 
passage  for  them  to  follow  him  by ;  as  a  man  who  casts 
himself  into  an  enclosed  dungeon  which  has  no  outlet,  in 
order  to  save  a  number  of  others  whom  he  sees,  immured 
there,  and,  when  he  is  in,  forces  a  passage  through  the  wall, 
by  dashing  himself  against  it,  to  the  great  injury  of  his  per- 
son. His  coming  into  the  dungeon  is  a  voluntary  act,  but 
after  he  is  there,  he  is  liable  to  the  discomforts  of  the  dun- 
geon by  necessity,  until  he  breaks  through.  This  is  one 
man  suffering  for  others,  but  it  is  not  substitution." — 
P.  263. 


No.  III.— Page  177. 

EXTRACTS  FROM  "  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION,"  ETC 

"  My  object  in  this  treatise  is  to  set  forth,  as  distinctly 
and  simply  as  I  can,  the  grounds  on  which  I  have  come  to 
the  conclusion,  that  the  doctrine  of  God's  Election,  as  taught 


554  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  ait. 

in  the  Bible,  is  altogether  different  from,  and  opposed  to 
that  which  has  passed  under  the  name  of  the  Doctrine  of 
Election,  and  been  received  as  such,  by  a  great  part  of  the 
professing  church  through  many  ages." — P.  1. 

"  I  held  this  doctrine  for  many  years,  modified,  however 
inconsistently,  by  the  belief  of  God's  love  to  all,  and  of 
Christ  having  died  for  all — and  yet,  when  I  look  back  on 
the  state  of  my  mind  during  that  period,  I  feel  that  it 
would  be  truer  to  say,  I  submitted  to  it,  than  that  I  be- 
lieved it.  I  submitted  to  it,  because  I  did  not  see  how  the 
language  of  the  9th  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans, 
and  of  a  few  similar  passages,  could  bear  any  other  inter- 
pretation ;  and  yet  I  could  not  help  feeling  that,  on  account 
of  what  appeared  to  be  the  meaning  of  these  few  difficult 
passages,  I  was  giving  up  the  plain  and  obvious  meaning 
of  all  the  rest  of  the  Bible,  which  seems  continually,  in  the 
most  unecmivocal  language,  and  in  every  page,  to  say  to 
every  man,  '  See,  I  have  set  before  thee  this  day  life  and 
good,  death  and  evil,  therefore  choose  life  that  thou  mayest 
live.'  I  could  not  help  feeling,  that  if  the  above  repre- 
sentation were  true,  then  that  on  which  a  real  and  righteous 
responsibility  in  man  can  alone  be  founded,  was  wanting, 
and  the  slothful  servant  had  reason  when,  in  vindication 
of  his  unprofitableness,  he  said,  'I  knew  thee,  that  thou  art 
an  hard  man,  reaping  where  thou  hast  not  sown,  and  gather- 
ing where  thou  hast  not  strawed.'  Above  all,  I  could  not 
help  feeling  that  if  God  were  such  as  that  doctrine  described 
Him,  then  the  Creator  of  every  man  was  not  the  friend  of 
every  man,  nor  the  righteous  object  of  confidence  to  every 
man  ;  and  that  when  Christ  was  preached  to  sinners,  the 
whole  truth  of  God  was  not  preached  to  them,  for  that  there 
was  something  behind  Christ  in  the  mind  of  God,  giving 
Him  to  one,  and  withholding  Him  from  another,  so  that  the 
ministry  of  reconciliation  was  only  an  appendix  to  a  deeper 


in.  <  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTIONS  .r>"> 

and  more  dominant  ministry,  in  which  God  appeared  simply 
as  a  Sovereign  without  any  moral  attribute,  and  man  was 
dealt  with  as  a  mere  creature  of  necessity  without  any  real 
responsibility." — Pp.  3-5. 

"Thus,  besides  his  own  individual  personality,  we  see  two 
powers  in  every  man — the  one,  the  power  of  this  world  and 
of  its  prince ;  and  the  other  the  power  of  the  world  to 
come,  and  of  its  Prince.  These  are  the  flesh  and  the  spirit, 
the  seeds  or  principles  of  the  first  and  second  vessels.  The 
man  is  not  either  the  flesh  or  the  spirit,  he  is  separate  from 
both,  but  they  are  seeds  sown  in  him,  and  his  capacity  of 
acting  is  merely  his  capacity  of  choosing  to  which  of  these 
two  active  principles  he  will  yield  himself  up.  They  are, 
as  it  were,  two  cords  attached  to  every  heart,  the  one  held 
by  the  hand  of  Satan,  the  other  held  by  the  hand  of  God. 
And  they  are  continually  drawing  the  heart  in  opposite 
directions,  the  one  towards  the  things  of  self,  the  other  to- 
wards the  things  of  God — the  one  being  the  reprobation, 
and  the  other  the  election.  Thus  man,  in  all  his  actings, 
never  has  to  originate  anything ;  he  has  only  to  follow 
something  already  commenced  within  him  ;  he  has  only  to 
choose  to  which  of  these  two  powers  he  will  join  himself. 
Here,  then,  I  found  that  which  I  had  approved  in  Calvin- 
ism, and  which  I  required  as  au  element  of  every  explana- 
tion of  the  doctrine  which  should  be  set  up  in  opposition 
to  Calvinism,  namely,  a  recognition  that  there  is  no  self- 
quickening  power  in  man,  and  that  there  is  no  good  in  man 
but  what  is  of  the  direct  acting  of  the  Spirit  of  God." 
—Pp.  58-9. 

"  When  we  see  the  two  natures,  of  flesh  and  spirit,  so  in 
every  man  that  he  may  join  himself  to  either  of  them,  and 
thus  become  either  reprobate  or  elect,  we  see  the  root  of 
the  doctrine  of  election.  And  when  we  see  rightly  the  gift 
of  Christ,  we  shall  see  that  as  He  is  the  true  light  which 


556  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  app. 

lighteth  every  man,  so  also  there  is  in  Him  a  communica- 
tion of  life  to  every  man.  For  '  in  him  was  life,  and  the 
life  was  the  light  of  men  ; '  and  thus  the  light  which  light- 
eth every  man  is  a  living  light — a  light  whereby  he  may 
live.  And  thus  by  the  entrance  of  the  Word  into  our  flesh, 
not  only  has  God  been  brought  near  to  us,  as  an  object  of 
trust  and  love,  but  also  His  living  Spirit,  the  divine  nature, 
has  been  communicated  to  us  subjectively  as  a  capacity  of 

embracing  God,  whether  we  exercise  it  or  not 

The  whole  responsibility  of  man  consists  in  his  power 
to  recognise  and  follow  this  inward  drawing  of  God, 
or  to  reject  it,  according  to  his  own  personal  choosing." 
—P.  61. 

"  Let  me  not  be  misunderstood,  as  if  I  said  either  that 
man  can,  in  his  own  strength,  turn  to  God,  or  of  his  own 
origination  would  ever  desire  to  do  so, — but  man,  since  the 
gift  of  Christ,  need  not  do  anything  in  his  own  strength. 
The  strength  of  God  is  communicated  to  him,  in  the  seed 
of  the  word  sown  in  his  heart,  so  that  he  may  take  hold  of 
it,  and  walk  with  God  ;  and  it  is  only  by  his  own  wilful 
refusal  to  use  that  strength  that  he  is  without  it.  Conver- 
sion is,  indeed,  man's  first  step  in  the  spiritual  life,  but  he 
never  could  have  taken  this  step,  nor  could  he  ever  rightly 
have  been  commanded  to  take  it,  unless  God  had  first  taken 
a  step  towards  him.  The  Word  who  was  with  God,  and 
Avas  God,  and  in  whom  there  is  life,  hath  come  into  man's 
nature, — into  the  whole  mass  of  the  nature, — as  a  fountain 
of  life,  to  quicken  every  man,  and  as  a  living  cord,  to  draw 
man  up  to  God.  And  shall  we  now  speak  and  reason  about 
man,  as  if  he  were  yet  in  the  condition  into  which  Adam's 
fall  brought  him,  before  the  Word  was  given ;  though  now 
in  him,  '  God  is  the  Saviour  of  all  men,  specially  of  those 
who  believe,'  and  in  Him  also  '  the  grace  of  God.  which 
bringeth  salvation  to  all  men  hath  appeared,'  and  '  where 


'  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION: 


sin  abounded,  there  hath  grace  much  more  abounded '  \ 
Most  assuredly  there  is  in  Jesus  Christ  a  general  sal- 
vation for  the  whole  race,  inasmuch  as  in  Him  they  are 
lifted  again  into  that  state  of  probation  from  which  in 
Adam  they  had  fallen,  and  are  provided  with  spiritual 
strength  to  go  through  their  probation,  whether  they  use 
that  strength  or  not :  but  none  becomes  personally  a  par- 
taker of  salvation,  except  by  personally  turning  to  God. 
And,  in  like  manner,  there  is  in  Jesus  Christ  a  general 
election  for  the  whole  race — inasmuch  as,  in  Him,  they  are 
lifted  out  of  that  state  of  reprobation  into  which,  in  Adam, 
they  had  fallen ;  but  no  one  becomes  personally  elect 
except  by  his  personally  receiving  Christ  into  his  heart. ' 
—Pp.  141-3. 

"  With  regard  to  the  importance  of  the  outward  Word. 
I  may  have  exposed  myself  to  misapprehension,  especially 
where  I  have  asserted  the  unprofitableness  of  the  out- 
ward Word  to  those  persons  who  were  not  listening 
to  the  inward  word.  But  the  reader  Avill  understand  me, 
if  he  carries  along  with  him,  that  by  this  expression  I  mean 
to  describe  persons  contenting  themselves,  and  pacifying 
their  consciences,  either  with  the  formal  reading  of  the 
Bible,  or  with  the  mere  understanding  of  its  theology,  but 
without  seeking  or  finding  spiritual  communion  with  God 
in  it.  Whilst  they  continue  thus  to  read  it  or  study  it,  no 
one  surely  who  knows  what  religion  is,  would  consider  it 
profitable  to  them.  Yet  even  in  their  case,  I  could  not 
wish  that  they  should  give  up  the  reading  of  the  Bible. 
They  are  at  present  without  faith,  but  the  Bible  has  an 
intrinsic  aptitude  to  produce  faith.  It  contains,  in  the 
largeness  of  its  inspiration,  a  tally  corresponding  to  every- 
thing in  the  hearts  of  all  men,  and  a  key  to  every  variety 
of  their  outward  circumstances ;  and  God  is  continually 
preparing  a  way  for  it  into  their  consciences,  by  the  events 


558  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  app. 

with  which  He  is  meeting  them  in  His  providence,  making 
them,  through  the  discipline  of  these  events,  feel  the  truth 
of  what  it  testifies  of  the  wickedness  and  desolateness  of 
the  heart  which  is  away  from  God,  as  well  as  the  suitable- 
ness of  its  counsels  and  threatenings  and  consolations,  to 
their  experience  and  condition.  And  as  the  Spirit  of  God 
is  ever  bearing  the  same  witness  within  them,  although  it 
may  be  generally  disregarded,  the  coincidence  of  these  two 
solemn  voices,  from  within  and  from  without,  will  some- 
times strike  like  a  knell  upon  them,  and  bring  home  to 
them  the  feeling  that  the  Searcher  of  hearts  is  dealing  with 
them,  and  that  they  are  entangled  in  his  net,  and  that  there 
can  be  no  true  deliverance  for  them,  and  no  true  abiding 
rest  for  them,  but  in  knowing  Him,  and  in  being  of  one 
mind  with  Him.  It  is  in  the  hope  of  such  a  result  as  this, 
that  I  feel  thankful  to  know  that  even  those  who  are  with- 
out faith  are  reading  the  Bible ;  for  those  who  are  in  the 
practice  of  reading  it  are  more  in  the  way  of  this  operation 
than  those  who  read  it  not. 

"  And  for  this  same  reason,  it  appears  desirable  that  there 
should  be  books,  proving  the  inspiration  and  authority  of 
the  Bible,  by  all  sorts  of  argument,  notwithstanding  the 
danger  there  is  of  men  mistaking  their  assent  to  a  demon- 
stration for  that  faith  which  saves  the  soul ;  because  a  man 
who  is  really  convinced  that  the  Bible  is  a  supernatural 
book,  is  more  likely  to  seek  God  in  it,  than  one  who  regards 
it  as  of  at  least  doubtful  origin." — Pp.  157-9. 

"  '  If  we  confess  our  sins,  He  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive 
us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness.'1 
Compare  this  with  the  7th  verse:  'If  we  walk  in  the 
light,  as  He  is  in  the  light,  we  have  fellowship  one  Avith 
another,  and  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  His  Son,  cleanseth 
us  from  all  sin.'  From  the  comparison  of  these  passages 
1 1  John  i.  9. 


in.  '  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTIONS  559 

it  may  be  inferred  that  the  confession  of  sin  means  the 
same  thing  as  the  receiving  of  reproof,  or  the  accepting  of 
punishment,  and  that  this  is  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  or 
the  shedding  of  the  blood  of  man's  will  in  the  Spirit  of 
Jesus.  For  surely  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  two  dif- 
ferent ways  of  being  cleansed  from  sin  are  set  before  us  in 
these  two  verses  of  John,  but  that  the  one  only  way  is  set 
forth  in  both,  under  two  different  forms  of  expression. 

"  All  sin  consists  in  man's  independent  will ;  and  there- 
fore the  shedding  out  of  the  blood  of  man's  will  is  that 
which  cleanseth  from  all  sin.  And  as  the  true  confession 
of  sin  is  the  condemnation  which  a  man  passes  on  his 
past  life  and  doings  considered  as  a  ground  of  confidence, 
so  it  is  an  accepting  of  death  as  his  due,  which  is  the 
virtual  shedding  out  of  the  blood  of  all  his  past  life,  and  a 
casting  of  himself,  in  the  Spirit  of  Jesus,  on  God  and  on 
His  mercy,  which  endureth  for  ever,  as  the  only  life  and 
hope  of  life. 

"  This  was  the  continual  sacrifice  of  Jesus,  who  bore 
and  confessed  the  sins  of  all  men.  And  He  is  the  un- 
speakable gift  of  God  to  all  men,  not  in  order  that  they 
may  be  excused  from  making  this  sacrifice,  but  in  order 
that  they  may  partake  of  the  Spirit  of  Jesus,  and  thus  may 
be  enabled  to  partake  with  Him  in  this  sacrifice  of  self — 
in  this  acceptable  service — so  that  God  may  be  just, 
whilst  reckoning  them  righteous." — Pp.  240-2. 

"  And  now  if  any  of  my  readers  are  disposed  to  stop  here 
and  ask  me,  'Do  you  in  your  conscience  think  that  this 
dealing  of  God  towards  man,  in  allowing  an  innumerable 
race  to  suffer  by  the  act  of  a  single  individual,  is  consistent 
with  goodness  and  righteousness1?'  I  feel  quite  free  to 
meet  the  question, — and  I  answer  unhesitatingly,  that  I 
cannot  think  it  good  or  righteous  that  any  one  should 
suffer,  on  the  xohole,  or  taking  the  whole  of  his  existence 


560  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  app. 

into  the  account,  by  the  fault  of  another — and  that  my 
confidence  in  the  goodness  and  righteousness  of  God  in  this 
dealing  of  His  towards  man,  is  founded  on  the  conviction 
that  out  of  it  a  greater  amount  and  a  higher  kind  of 
blessedness  will  arise  than  could  have  been  produced  with- 
out it — and  that  eventually  no  one  individual  will  fail  to 
participate  in  that  greater  good,  except  by  his  own  deter- 
mined rejection  of  it. 

"  I  might  have  just  cause  to  complain,  if  exposed  to  trials, 
without  an  adequate  provision  of  strength  to  meet  them;  or 
exposed  to  sufferings,  without  a  prospect  of  deriving  good 
from  them.  And  the  justice  of  my  complaint  would  not  be 
at  all  affected  by  the  circumstance  of  this  condition  coming 
to  me  by  inheritance,  in  consequence  of  the  sin  of  another, 
whether  that  other  was  my  progenitor  or  not.  I  cannot 
admit  the  justice  of  a  demand  which  He  who  makes  it 
knows  I  cannot  meet,  and  of  sufferings  being  laid  upon  me 
which  He  knows  cannot  produce  any  good  to  me.  And  I 
feel  that  my  complaint  is  equally  well  foimded,  whether 
this  condition  comes  to  me  by  original  creation  or  by  inherit- 
ance. Indeed,  I  do  not  feel  that  the  way  of  its  coming  to 
me  makes  any  difference  on  the  justice  of  the  dealing,  so 
long  as  it  does  not  come  in  consequence  of  a  culpable  act 
of  my  own. 

"  But  again,  I  do  not  feel  that  I  have  any  right  to  com- 
plain of  being  called  to  any  exertions  or  sufferings,  however 
great  and  however  irksome  they  may  be,  if  the  appointer 
of  my  lot  supplies  me  with  strength  to  meet  them,  and  if  I 
have  a  prospect  of  deriving  good  from  them,  in  proportion 
to  their  difficulty.  I  should  have  no  right  to  complain  of 
being  originally  created  in  such  a  condition  of  things,  and 
the  circumstance  of  its  coming  to  me  by  inheritance  from  a 
progenitor  on  whom  it  was  denounced  as  a  mark  of  God's 
disapprobation  of  his  disobedience,  does   not   change  the 


in.  'THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION:  561 

case,  so  as  to  give  me  a  right  to  complain  as  if  such  a  con- 
dition of  things  were  unrighteous. 

"  If,  according  to  the  nature  of  things,  a  created  mind  can 
only  rise  to  spiritual  excellence  and  blessedness  by  passing 
through  a  spiritual  and  moral  conflict,  which  embraces  suf- 
ferings and  self-denial — and  if  there  be  a  proportion  be- 
tween the  amount  of  excellence  and  blessedness  obtained 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  difficulties  met  and  overcome  on 
the  other, — then  it  will  follow,  that  God  is  indeed  only 
calling  us  to  a  higher  holiness  aud  blessedness,  by  placing 
us  under  such  a  condition  of  things  as  we  now  find  our- 
selves under,  in  consequence  of  the  fall ;  and  although  that 
condition  may  have  come  to  us  as  marking  God's  displea- 
sure against  the  sin  of  our  progenitor,  it  will  not  on  that 
account  alter  its  own  character  in  relation  to  us,  or  cease 
to  be  a  reason  for  gratitude  to  God  for  His  goodness  in 
giving  us  this  higher  call. 

"  As  to  the  idea  of  one  man  being  considered  actually 
culpable  on  account  of  what  another  man  has  done  amiss, 
it  appears  to  me  as  opposite  to  the  whole  tenor  of  the 
Bible  as  it  is  to  our  own  consciences.  Yet  I  feel  that  an 
instruction  is  conveyed  to  me  in  the  fact  that  the  perver- 
sion of  my  nature,  and  consequent  liability  to  pain  and 
death,  come  to  me  by  inheritance  from  a  man  who  had 
brought  them  upon  himself  and  his  descendants  by  his 
personal  transgression,  which  I  could  not  have  had,  if  I 
had  been  created  originally  in  that  condition,  without  any 
such  apparent  cause  leading  to  it.  So  that  if  it  were  said 
to  me,  '  It  is  the  plan  of  God  to  put  you  into  this  state  of 
trial  and  suffering,  but  you  may  choose  whether  you  will 
have  it  so  settled  by  original  appointment,  or  whether  you 
will  have  it  come  as  the  consequence  of  the  sin  of  a  pro- 
genitor,' I  feel  a  reason  for  choosing  the  latter.  With 
regard  to  myself,  they  are  equally  dealings  of  sovereignty, 

2  N 


562  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  a  pp. 

irrespective  of  deservings  ;  but  according  to  the  first  way, 
I  have  only  the  wise  appointment  of  the  circumstances  of 
my  probation,  whilst  in  the  other  I  have  an  additional 
speaking  testimony  from  God,  warning  me  of  the  poisonous 
nature  of  sin  by  the  example  of  my  progenitor. 

"  In  like  manner,  the  fact  that  I  am  invited  to  receive, 
through  another  One,  the  favour  of  God  and  the  gift  of  the 
Spirit,  as  a  reward  for  his  having  resisted  and  overcome  all 
sin,  notwithstanding  of  his  having  been  encumbered  with 
all  the  disadvantages  arising  from  Adam's  fall,  contains  an 
instruction  which  I  could  not  have  had  if  these  blessings 
had  been  bestowed  upon  me  in  unexplained  sovereignty. 

"  I  am  instructed  by  these  two  facts  to  consider  spiritual 
darkening  and  weakening  as  the  consequence  of  volun- 
tary alienation  from  God,  and  spiritual  enlightening  and 
strengthening  as  the  consequence  of  a  voluntary  surrender 
of  self  to  God  ;  for  I  can  never  in  my  conscience  suppose 
that  I  shall  suffer  a  true  and  permanent  evil  from  the  acts 
of  the  first  Adam,  except  by  yielding  myself  to  that  spirit 
of  self-pleasing  which  brought  on  his  penalty,  or  that  I 
shall  derive  a  real  benefit  from  the  acts  of  the  Second 
Adam,  except  by  yielding  myself  to  that  spirit  of  self- 
sacrifice  which  brought  on  his  reward. 

"  Thus,  if  the  condition  in  which  Adam  was  placed  after 
the  fall  was  one  in  which  he  was  called  to  greater  exer- 
tions and  sufferings  than  in  his  former  state ;  and  at  the 
same  time,  if  his  supply  of  strength  was  proportionally 
increased,  so  that  by  using  that  strength  faithfully  in 
meeting  his  trials,  he  had  the  certainty  of  obtaining  a 
much  higher  place,  both  in  holiness  and  happiness,  than 
he  could  otherwise  have  reached, — then  we  may  say  that 
Adam  was  a  gainer  by  his  punishment,  and  that  his  pos- 
terity, notwithstanding  of  what  they  suffer  through  him, 
have  a  higher  hope  set  before  them  than  they  would  have 


THE  DOC  TRINE  OF  ELEC  TION. '  503 


had  if  they  had  stood  with  bim,  in  the  original  condition 
in  which  he  was  created. 

"  But  it  will  be  answered  that,  although  the  truth  of  all 
this  be  granted,  still  it  must  be  taken  into  account,  that 
whilst  men  have  a  higher  hope  set  before  them,  on  this 
new  footing,  they  have  also  a  greater  risk  as  well  as  a 
more  arduous  task,  and  that  therefore  they  are  tempted 
to  wish  that  they  had  an  easier  part  to  act,  and  less  respon- 
sibility, though  at  the  expense  of  having  a  lower  hope 
before  them. 

"  They  may  be  tempted  to  wish  this,  but  they  cannot  in 
their  consciences  deny  that  such  a  temptation  proceeds  from 
an  evil  source — from  a  base,  low-minded  slothfulness,  in- 
different and  careless  about  the  gracious  purpose  of  God 
to  lead  us  upwards  to  Himself;  and,  at  all  events,  they 
cannot  charge  their  Maker  with  unrighteousness  in  calling 
them  to  a  good  and  righteous  conflict  against  evil,  whilst 
He  does  not  fail  to  provide  them  with  strength  adequate 
to  their  needs.  They  might  as  well  complain  that  they 
are  not  in  the  condition  of  a  wild  horse  in  the  plains  of 
Tartary,  or  of  an  eagle  amongst  the  Andes — set  free  from 
all  responsibility.  Nay,  they  might  as  well  complain  that 
they  have  a  God  at  all  over  them,  and  that  they  are  not 
their  own  gods." — Pp.  257-G4. 

"  I  believe  that  the  original  condition  of  man,  the  fall, 
and  the  redemption, are  only  so  many  consecutive  distinct 
steps  in  that  mighty  plan  which  is  now  in  progress,  and 
which  may  continue  to  be  so  for  ever,  by  which  God  would 
train  up  a  creature  for  real  participation  in  His  own  holy 
and  blessed  nature.  I  cannot  conceive  that  a  creature  such 
as  man  will  be  when  that  purpose  is  accomplished,  could 
have  been  made  at  once,  in  other  words,  that  such  a  por- 
duction  is  within  the  province  of  creative  power.  I  believe 
that  holiness  is  an  acquirement  which  can  only  be  made  by 


564  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  app. 

the  co-operation  of  the  creature's  own  personal  will ;  it  is 
a  habit,  and  not  a  mere  capacity,  and  thus  belongs  not  to 
the  first  creation,  but  to  the  second,  which  requires  the 
consent  of  the  creature." — P.  272. 

"  Thus  every  man  has,  in  his  present  state  of  trial,  three 
distinct  wills  within  him,  of  which  he  is  himself  conscious, 
— first,  the  will  of  God  striving  with  his  conscience ;  second, 
the  will  of  Satan  or  self  ruling  in  his  members ;  and  third, 
the  elective  will,  in  his  own  personality,  which  determines 
with  which  of  the  other  two  wills  he  shall  side.  This  last 
will,  though  it  has  this  peculiar  prerogative,  is  yet  never 
itself  the  dominant  will,  it  only  chooses  which  of  the  other 
two  shall  be  dominant." — P.  281. 

"  The  conscience  which  God  has  given  to  every  man  is  a 
much  higher  gift  than  either  an  outward  or  an  inward 
oracle,  such  as  we  have  been  supposing.  It  is  a  capacity 
of  entering  into  the  reasons  of  God's  actions  and  command- 
ments, it  is  a  capacity  of  a  true  spiritual  union  with  Him ; 
and  thus  when  we  meet  the  will  of  God  in  our  consciences, 
Ave  receive  it  in  the  way  of  participation,  or  as  an  infusion, 
so  to  speak, — whereas,  when  we  meet  it  in  an  oracle  simply, 
we  receive  it  as  an  impulsion.  That  which  does  not  enter 
by  the  conscience,  but  is  merely  put  upon  us,  or  conferred 
on  us,  can  never  really  affect  our  nature, — it  may  elevate 
us  as  instruments  in  the  hands  of  God,  but  it  cannot  elevate 
us  into  fellowship  with  God.  And  therefore  the  smallest 
conscious  and  sympathetic  conformity  to  the  will  of  God 
is  a  much  higher  thing  than  the  being  made  the  instrument 
of  raising  the  dead,  or  declaring  things  to  come.  In  the 
one  case  the  nature  is  really  elevated ;  in  the  other,  it  is 
only  used  for  an  elevated  purpose." — Pp.  513-14. 

"  The  Protestant  does  the  same  thing  with  regard  to  the 
doctrines  of  religion  that  the  Papist  does  with  regard  to 


III.  '  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION?  565 

religion  throughout.  He  relieves  himself  from  the  personal 
obligation  of  apprehending  their  truth  in  the  light  of  his 
own  conscience ;  he  looks  to  the  Bible  as  the  Papist  looks 
to  the  Church,  and  he  adopts  whatever  doctrines  he  thinks 
that  he  finds  there,  without  feeling  the  obligation  of  person- 
ally seeing  their  truth  in  the  light  of  his  own  conscience, 
before  he  is  really  entitled  to  call  himself  a  believer  of  them. 
He  thus  substitutes  outward  authority  in  the  place  of  the 
light  which  is  Life,  although  he  condemns  the  Papist  for 
doing  that  very  thing." — Pp.  515-16. 

"  But  when  I  say  that  we  are  not  left  to  lean  on  any  out- 
ward authority  for  our  knowledge  of  God,  and  of  His  ways 
towards  us,  let  no  one  think  that  I  am  putting  aside  the 
Bible  as  an  authority ;  for  my  meaning  is  simply  this,  that 
although  many  most  important  truths  are  set  before  us  in 
the  Bible,  which  never  would  have  entered  our  hearts  had 
they  not  been  thus  set  before  us ;  yet  that  being  thus  set 
before  us,  they  are  then  only  profitable  to  us,  and  even  truly 
believed  by  us,  when  they  awaken  within  us  a  corresponding 
form  of  our  inward  spiritual  consciousness,  so  that  we  recog- 
nise them  henceforth,  as  truths  which  we  ourselves  know 
to  be  truths,  by  conscious  experience,  and  not  merely  on 
the  outward  authority  of  the  Book. 

"  There  are  many  facts  in  our  intellectual  experience  quite 
analogous  to  this,  which  might  be  used  to  illustrate  it. 
Thus,  a  man  may  be  perfectly  incapable  of  making  any 
advance  in  mathematical  science  by  his  own  original  and 
unassisted  efforts, — and  yet  if  Euclid  be  put  into  his  hands, 
he  may  find  himself  cpiite  able  to  follow  and  appreciate  the 
reasoning,  and  thus  to  gain  a  very  considerable  acquaintance 
with  the  subject.  His  mind  in  consequence  is  filled  with 
a  new  class  of  ideas,  which  he  has  acquired  entirely  from 
the  reading  of  this  book.     And  yet  it  is  not  on  the  author- 


5G6  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSK1NE.  app. 

ity  of  the  book  that  he  rests  his  conviction  of  the  truth  of 
any  of  the  propositions  contained  in  it,  but  on  his  own 
personal  discernment  of  their  truth.  Indeed,  we  could  not 
consider  him  to  have  entered  in  the  slightest  degree  into 
their  meaning,  if  we  found  him  resting  his  belief  of  them 
on  the  authority  of  the  book,  or  on  any  outward  authority 
whatever.  "Nor  indeed  would  we  call  such  a  belief  a 
mathematical  belief  at  all  And  yet  had  not  the  book 
presented  the  truths  outwardly  to  him,  the  inward  intellec- 
tual types  might  have  lain  for  ever  dormant  within  him. 

"  In  this  case,  we  do  not  feel  that  we  detract  from  the 
importance  of  the  book,  Avhen  we  say  that  it  is  subordinate 
to  the  inward  intellectual  authority ;  that  is,  when  we  say 
that  it  is  to  be  judged  by  that  authority,  and  that  no  man 
can  believe  it  rightly  except  by  discerning  its  agreement 
with  that  authority  within  him ;  and  that  any  other  kind 
of  belief  is  not  a  belief  which  suits  the  subject,  because  it 
is  not  a  belief  which  discerns  truth  in  the  subject. 

"  And  in  the  same  way  we  do  not  detract  from  the  im- 
portance or  from  the  authority  of  the  Bible,  when  we  say 
that  then  only  can  its  authority  be  rightly  acknowledged 
by  us,  when  we  discern  its  agreement  with  the  testimony 
of  the  spiritual  witness  within  us,  and  that  its  great  im- 
portance consists  in  awakening  our  consciousness  to  the 
presence  and  the  instructions  of  that  spiritual  witness." — 
Pp.  523-26. 

"  Metaphysicians  have  disputed  whether  conscience  is  a 
simple  faculty,  or  whether  the  impressions  which  we  ascribe 
to  it  are  produced  by  a  combination  of  faculties.  And  if 
there  be  no  higher  nature  in  it  than  man's  nature,  it  is  of 
little  consequence  which  of  these  opinions  we  adopt;  because, 
on  this  hypothesis,  our  power  of  obeying  its  intimation, 
which  is  certainly  the  important  point,  could  not  be  affected 


in.  'THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION:  567 

by  the  correctness  or  incorrectness  of  our  opinion.  But  if 
the  voice  in  our  conscience  is  the  indication  of  the  actual 
presence  of  God  within  us,  a  knowledge  that  it  is  so  is  of 
immense  importance  to  us  ;  for  thus  we  enter  into  the 
secret  of  God's  love  towards  us,  and  of  His  purpose  concern- 
ing us,  that  our  hearts  should  be  His  temples,  and  that  we 
should  be  one  with  Him,  through  Jesus  Christ ;  aud  thus 
also  we  discover,  that  though  in  ourselves  we  are  only 
ignorance  and  weakness,  yet  we  have  within  our  reach, 
and  within  the  limits  of  our  own  nature,  the  infinite 
wisdom  and  infinite  strength  of  God,  to  which  we  may 
unite  ourselves,  and  we  are  thus  encouraged  to  run  with 
confidence  the  race  that  is  set  before  us. 

"  Some  of  my  readers  may  think  that  I  have  given  too 
great  a  place  throughout  the  whole  book  to  the  subject  of 
conscience  ;  but  in  this  I  have  acted  from  the  conviction 
that  neither  the  doctrine  of  Election,  nor  any  other  doctrine, 
can  be  rightly  understood  except  through  the  doctrine 
of  conscience." — Pp.  544-46. 


No.  IV.— Page  373. 

MR.    ALEXANDER   J.    SCOTT. 


In  1830  Mr.  Scott  became  minister  of  the  small 
Scotch  congregation  at  Woolwich.  Here,  in  compara- 
tive retirement,  immersed  in  studies  of  many  kinds,  he 
remained  for  upwards  of  fifteen  years.  His  connection 
with  Edward  Irving  at  the  first,  and  his  residence  so  near 
the  metropolis  afterwards,  brought  him  into  close  fellow- 


568  •    LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKIXE.  Arr. 

ship  with  Carlyle,  Maurice,  Hare,  Dunn,  etc.,  disclosing  to 
them  at  once  the  rich  resources  of  his  scholarship  and  the 
peculiarities  of  a  spiritual  intelligence,  the  depth  and  width 
and  height  of  which  seemed  equally  above  the  ordinary 
range. 

In  1841  Mr.  Scott  delivered  in  London  a  course  of  five 
lectures  on  "  The  Social  Systems  of  the  Present  Day  com- 
pared with  Christianity."  These  lectures  were  reported 
in  the  Pulpit.  They  dealt  with  Romanism  in  the  shape 
it  then  took  of  Puseyism,  and  which  now,  after  an  interval 
of  thirty-six  years,  has  reappeared  in  the  guise  of  Ritualism; 
with  Chartism  in  the  shape  it  then  took  of  demand  for 
universal  suffrage,  annual  Parliaments,  and  vote  by  ballot, 
and  which  now  by  kindly  treatment  and  wise  concession 
has  almost  disappeared ;  with  Socialism  in  the  shape 
it  then  took  of  Owenism,  and  which  now,  instead  of  dis- 
appearing, or  being  seen  only  among  the  lower  and  the 
more  unenlightened,  has  in  the  portentous  shapes  of 
Materialism,  Secularism,  Comtism,  spread  widely  and 
taken  hold  of  all  classes  of  the  community.  The  reader 
of  Mr.  Scott's  lectures,  as  he  reflects  that  more  than  the 
years  of  a  generation  have  passed  since  their  delivery,  will 
be  surprised  that  there  is  so  little  in  them  that  is  not  as 
directly  applicable  to  the  present  as  to  the  past.  They 
owe  this  to  a  quality  by  which  all  his  handlings  of  such 
topics  were  distinguished, — that  the  merely  temporary, 
secondary,  adventitious  was  set  aside,  and  in  each  case  the 
root-principle  was  sought  for,  grasped,  and  alone  dealt 
with.  In  the  following  year  (1842)  another  but  shorter 
course  of  lectures  was  delivered  in  the  same  place  on 
"Schism,"  the  same  method  observed,  and  with  a  like  result. 
Three  years  later  (1845)  Mr.  Scott  preached  a  very 
original    and  remarkable  sermon  at  Woolwich,   on  "  The 


MR.  ALEX.  J.  SCOTT. 


569 


First  Principles  of  Church  Government."  Its  object  was 
to  show  that,  as  represented  in  Holy  Writ,  this  principle 
consists  in  the  free  exercise,  on  the  part  of  the  Church,  at 
all  different  times,  and  in  all  different  circumstances,  of 
her  own  best  judgment  in  the  selection  of  the  means  best 
fitted  to  promote  the  great  ends  of  her  institution ;  that 
she  has  not  been  bound  down  to  any  specific  form  of 
government  or  worship  or  discipline  by  a  divine  enact- 
ment in  its  favour ;  that  her  institutions  stand  not  on  the 
strength  of  statute,  but  in  that  of  their  fitness  to  fulfil  the 
great  objects  of  her  mission  ;  that  in  point  of  fact  the 
history  of  their  origin  proves  this  to  be  their  character. 
The  discourse  consists  mainly  in  a  review  of  the  first 
institution  of  Judges  under  Moses,  of  the  Schools  of  the 
Prophets  and  of  the  Synagogue  in  Old  Testament  times, 
and  of  the  appointment  of  Deacons  and  the  decisions  of 
the  first  Council  at  Jerusalem  in  New  Testament  times, 
with  the  design  of  showing  that  what  was  in  each  case 
done,  sprang  naturally  and  primarily  out  of  the  form  and 
pressure  of  existing  circumstances,  did  not  originate  in  a 
divine  edict,  and  though  the  sanction  and  blessing  of  God 
were  conferred  and  bestowed,  human  wisdom,  seeking 
such  guidance  as  is  always  promised,  was  permitted  to 
prompt  and  to  fashion.  The  sermon  was  published  as  a 
pamphlet  and  came  into  the  hands  of  Dr.  Chalmers,  who 
wrote  thus  to  its  author  : — 

"Edinburgh,  March  22,  1S45. 
"  My  dear  Sir, — Yours  is  no  every-day  pamphlet ;  and 
I  have  read   it  with   the  most  entire   and  cordial  satis- 
faction. .  .  .  How  the  adoption  of   your  principle  ought 
to  speed  the  cause  of  Christian  union  !   .  .  . 

"The  saying  of  Paul  that  'I  speak  as  a  man,'  Avhile  it 
does  not  affect  the  plenary  inspiration  of  Scripture,  which 


570  BETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE.  ai-p. 

is  responsible  not  for  the  tiling  recorded  but  for  the  truth 
of  it,  teaches,  in  rny  opinion,  your  very  lesson,  by  letting 
posterity  know,  from  even  his  high  example,  that  it  was 
competent  on  mere  human  discretion  to  decide  on  ques- 
tions of  ecclesiastical  regulations  and  polity.  There  is 
thus  a  great  purpose  served  by  that  brief  intimation,  and 
it  is  a  further  enhancement  of  the  lesson  when  he  says,  '  I 
speak  as  unto  wise  men,  judge  ye  what  I  say.' — I  am, 
my  dear  Sir,  yours  very  truly,        Thomas  Chalmers." 

In  November  1848  Mr.  Scott  was  appointed  to  the 
Chair  of  "  English  Language  and  Literature  "  in  University 
College,  London.  In  the  year  following  (1849),  on  the 
invitation  of  the  Directors  of  the  Philosophical  Institution 
of  Edinburgh,  he  delivered  in  that  city  six  lectures  on  '"'  The 
Philosophy  of  History."  In  the  winter  of  1850-51  he 
was  called  to  occupy  the  position  of  Principal  of  the  new 
College  (Owens)  then  founded  at  Manchester.  In  addition 
to  the  Principalship,  he  filled  the  Chairs  of  "  Moral  and 
Mental  Philosophy"  and  of  "English  Language  and 
Literature."  Again  and  again  the  Directors  of  the  Philo- 
sophical Institution  of  Edinburgh  sought  and  obtained  his 
highly  prized  services  as  a  lecturer.  In  1850  he  delivered 
before  its  members  four  lectures  on  "  The  existing  Ele- 
ments of  English  Society  historically  considered;"  in 
1851,  four  lectures  on  "The  Progress  of  Mental  Philo- 
sophy," and  four  lectures  on  "  The  General  Literature 
of  the  Period."  In  1853  he  was  asked  by  the  Directors, 
as  the  greatest  honour  they  could  bestow,  to  deliver  the 
Introductory  Address  to  the  course.  In  1856  he  delivered 
four  lectures  on  "The  Literature  of  the  Middle  Ages;" 
in  1S58-59  four  lectures  on  "The  Revival  of  Letters 
anterior  to  the  Reformation ; "  and  in  18G0  four  lectures 


MR.  ALEX.  J.  SCOTT. 


on  "  The  Reformation  in  its  Philosophical  and  Social  Ten- 
dencies, and  the  Kesult." 

The  Principalship  of  Owens  College  Mr.  Scott  after 
some  years  resigned;  but  the  Chairs  held  originally  in 
connection  with  it  he  occupied  till  his  death,  which  took 
place  in  January  1866,  at  Yeytaux,  on  the  Lake  of  Geneva, 
to  which  place  failing  health  had  taken  him  at  the  close 
of  the  summer  session  at  Manchester  in  1865. 

As  a  linguist  Mr.  Scott  had  at  free  command,  and 
turned  to  frequent  exercise,  the  three  old  tongues  of 
Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin.  His  mastery  of  the  three 
modern  ones,  French,  Italian,  and  German,  was  complete. 
With  the  Anglo-Saxon  he  was  so  versant  as  to  undertake 
to  teach  it.  It  was  as  instruments,  however,  that  he  used 
these  languages,  employing  them  as  the  needed  keys  to 
open  up  to  him  mediaeval  and  modern  literature  and 
philosophy.  The  rich  and  varied  stores  thus  gathered  in 
were  used  again  but  as  instruments  or  materials  for  that 
spiritual  faculty  of  insight  and  reflection  which  in  origi- 
nality, subtlety,  depth,  and  comprehensiveness  was  scarce 
surpassed  by  any  pure  thinker  of  his  times.  It  is  ever  to 
be  regretted  that  he  has  left  so  little  behind  him.  This 
was  largely  due  to  his  possession  of  a  singular  facility  of 
extempore  address,  and  as  singular  an  indisposition  either 
to  write  or  to  publish.  No  matter  what  his  topic, — whether 
recondite,  involving  sustained  trains  of  purely  abstract 
thought ;  or  historical,  involving  numerous  references  to 
persons  and  events;  or  critical,  involving  the  introduction 
of  many  apt  illustrations, — in  lecturing  he  never  used  a 
manuscript,  seldom  indeed  had  committed  his  thoughts  to 
■writing,  and  yet  the  stream  of  words  flowed  on  unbroken, — 
words  apparently  all  chosen  with  the  nicest  care  and  most 
delicate  adaptation.      "I  have  never,"  wrote   Dr.  W.  B. 


572  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


Carpenter,  "  heard  any  public  speaker  who  could  be  com- 
pared with  him  in  masterly  arrangement  of  materials, 
lucid  method  of  exposition,  ready  choice  of  the  most 
apposite  language,  freedom  from  all  redundancy,  force  and 
vigour  of  expression,  beauty  and  aptness  of  illustration, — 
in  a  word,  in  all  those  qualities  which  fix  the  attention  of 
hearers."  Could  Mr.  Scott  have  submitted  to  the  labour 
of  writing  and  publishing  the  thirty-one  Edinburgh  lectures 
alone,  accompanied  by  illustrative  notes,  what  a  wide  field 
would  they  cover,  what  a  vast  range  of  reading  would  they 
indicate,  what  profound  remarks  and  delicate  criticisms 
would  they  have  presented  to  us !  As  it  is,  we  have  only 
notes  of  the  four  on  the  Literature  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
taken  down  by  a  shorthand  writer,  and  published  at  Mr. 
Erskine's  instance  and  expense.  Urged  by  many  friends, 
a  year  or  two  before  his  death,  Mr.  Scott  put  together  and 
had  printed  three  early  papers  from  his  pen,  the  lectures 
on  Social  System  and  Schism,  and  the  sermon  on  Church 
Government.  These,  published  by  Macmillan  and  Co. 
after  his  decease,  under  the  title  "  Discourses  by  Alexander 
J.  Scott,"  are  all  the  fruits  that  now  remain  of  all  the 
searchings  after  truth  of  a  spirit  so  finely  touched  that 
the  two  friends  who  knew  him  best,  and  who  had  each 
large  acquaintance  with  distinguished  men,  have  separately 
declared  that  he  was  the  man  above  all  others  they  had 
ever  met  who  impressed  them  with  the  sense  of  mental 
and  spiritual  superiority. 


HIS  WRITINGS.  573 


No.  V.— Page  502. 

WHITINGS   OF  MR.    ERSKINE. 

Ten  years  or  so  after  the  publication  of  the  "  Doctrine 
of  Election,"  two  distinguished  Americans  called  upon  Mr. 
Erskine,  giving  as  their  apology  for  intruding  without 
introduction,  their  strong  desire  to  become  personally 
acquainted  Avith  an  author  whose  writings  had  made  a 
wide  and  deep  impression  on  their  countrymen.  "  It  is 
strange,"  said  Mr.  Erskine ;  "  it  is  a  long  time  since  I  have 
read  any  of  them,  and  my  impression  is  that  if  I  did,  I 
would  dislike  them."  His  interviewers  named  one  of  his 
volumes  as  to  which  they  fancied  he  could  have  no  such 
feeling.  "  My  impression  is,"  was  the  reply,  "  that  that  is 
the  one  that  I  would  particularly  dislike."  Cherishing  for 
a  time  this  feeling,  Mr.  Erskine  suffered  his  earlier  publi- 
cations to  go  out  of  print.  In  1844,  Mr.  Wright  Mathews 
having  written  to  him  suggesting  that  the  "  Introductory 
Essay  "  to  the  little  volume  of  "  Letters  by  a  Lady  "  should 
be  reprinted,  and  offering,  if  the  liberty  were  given  to 
republish  it,  to  superintend  the  press,  received  the  following 
reply  :— 

"  St.  George's  Hotel,  26th  Sept.  1844. 

."  I  don't  wish  to  oppose  your  desire  to  have  that  little 
Essay  reprinted,  and  yet  I  know  that  I  could  not  put  my 
seal  to  it  as  I  could  have  done  when  it  was  written,  and  I 
do  not  like  to  put  anything  forth  as  the  Gospel,  which 
contains  so  imperfect  a  view  of  truth  as  that  little  essay 
does.  You  could  make  a  much  better  tract  than  that,  and 
if  so,  why  publish  an  inferior  and  defective  tract  1 

"  I  hope  yet,  if  God  spare  me,  to  write  some  short  state 


574  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKIXE.  Arp. 

ment  which  may  contain  all  the  truth  which  I  have 
published,  and  omit  the  trash.  Let  this  be  my  answer, 
dear  friends,  to  your  proposition." 

Discouragement  only  led  Mr.  Mathews  to  renew  and 
enlarge  his  offer,  and  he  got  in  return  a  carte-blanche,  upon 
which  he  never  acted  : — 

"Paris,  8/7i  October  1844. 

"  You  are  very  welcome  to  do  what  you  please  with  my 
books,  only  don't  touch  much  on  the  last,  which  I  hope 
yet  to  put  into  a  better  form,  and  perhaps  to  make  it  into 
a  rfaumi  of  all  that  is  valuable  in  the  former  ones,  parti- 
cularly the  conclusion.  In  the  introduction  to  the  old 
lady's  letters  I  remember  some  severe  words  about  the 
leprosy  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  which  ought  to  be 
omitted  as  hurting  without  healing.  It  is  long  since  I 
have  read  any  of  them.  I  cannot  do  it,  there  are  so 
many  things  which  are  stated  there  as  whole  truths,  which 
are  only  half  truths.     This  is  my  general  fault  to  them." 

Under  the  title  "  True  and  False  Religion,"  the  "  Intro- 
ductory Essay  "  alluded  to  in  the  first  of  these  letters,  was 
re-issued  in  1874,  by  the  incumbent  of  Glenfield,  Leicester- 
shire, and  it  is  gratifying  to  observe  that  the  passage 
pointed  to  by  Mr.  Erskine  as  the  one  he  would  not  like  to 
see  reprinted  has  been,  of  his  own  motion,  omitted  by  the 
judicious  editor. 

The  conclusion  of  the  volume  on  Election,  referred  to  in 
the  second  letter  to  Mr.  Mathews,  was  also  separately 
republished,  by  one  who  thoroughly  appreciated  its  place 
and  importance  among  Mr.  Erskine's  writings,  under  the 
title,  "  The  Internal  Word ;  or,  Light  becoming  Life ;  a 
Short  Guide  to  the  Rule  of  Faith  and  of  Life ;  being  an 
Abridgment  of  the  concluding   portion  of  Mr.  Erskine's 


HIS  WRITINGS. 


volume  on  the  Doctrine  of  Election.     Edited  by  the  Right 
Rev.  the  Bishop  of  Argyll.     Edinburgh,  1865." 

The  indisposition  to  authorship  cherished  so  long  was 
at  last  dispelled.  The  publication  successively  of  the 
"  Essays  and  Reviews,"  Renan's  "  Life  of  Jesus,"  "  Ecce 
Homo,"  and  Colenso  on  the  "  Pentateuch,"  awakened  in 
him  profound  anxiety  and  not  a  little  alarm.  It  was  not 
in  the  direction  taken  by  the  writers  of  those  volumes 
that  he  felt  inclined  to  move.  It  was  not  from  movement 
in  that  direction  that  he  anticipated  the  truest  and  best 
advance.  Apostle  of  progress  in  religious  thought  as  he 
had  proved  himself  to  be,  depth  was  to  him  far  more  than 
width.  It  was  a  broadening  which  should  do  nothing  to 
weaken  or  dilute  the  faith  that  he  aimed  at  and  desired. 
There  was  much  in  the  fresh  historic  criticism  brought 
to  bear  upon  the  narrative  of  the  Bible  with  which  he 
was  inclined  to  sympathise,  but  whenever  he  detected  a 
disposition  to  set  aside  or  make  light  of  the  great  truths 
of  the  Incarnation  of  the  Deity  in  the  person  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  the  new  relation  of  sonship  to  God  into 
which  the  world  has  been  begotten  by  His  life  and  death, 
he  drew  back  and  repudiated.  When  the  great  truths 
or  laws  revealed  in  the  central  facts  of  Christianity  were  in 
any  way  unsettled,  it  was  not,  in  Mr.  Erskine's  opinion,  by 
Biblical  criticism  that  the  unsettling  process  was  best  met, 
but  by  a  fresh  or  still  further  unfolding  of  their  grounds 
and  reasons  in  the  character  of  God  and  the  constitution 
of  human  nature.  In  this  region  he  felt  that  he  had  a 
word  to  say  of  moment  to  the  times  ;  he  set  himself  to  say 
it  too  in  such  a  manner  as  might  address  itself  pertinently 
and  with  power  even  to  those  who  entirely  repudiated  the 
inspiration  and  the  supernatural  in  the  facts  and  records  of 
the  Bible.  The  letters  from  18G4  onwards  tell  with  what 
difficulties  he  had  to  contend  in  trying  to  give  fit  expres- 


576  LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


sion  to  his  latest  thoughts.  And  they  sufficiently  indicate 
what  these  thoughts  were  which  he  had  yet  but  imperfectly 
embodied  when  he  was  removed  by  death.  His  dying- 
charge  to  Miss  Gourlay  was  most  faithfully  and  intelli- 
gently executed.  All  that  was  in  a  fit  state  for  publica- 
tion was  carefully  seen  through  the  press,  and  published 
in  1871  under  the  title,  "The  Spiritual  Order  and  other 
Papers,  selected  from  the  Manuscripts  of  the  late  Thomas 
Erskine  of  Linlathen,"  whilst  the  specific  instruction  as  to 
the  paper  on  Education  and  Probation  was  carried  out  by 
its  separate  publication  in  1870  under  the  title,  "The 
Purpose  of  God."1 

With  the  removal  of  the  indisposition  to  prepare  any- 
thing new  for  publication,  there  came  also  the  removal 
of  the  impression  that  his  earlier  writings  were  in  anything 
like  dissonance  with  his  later  ideas.  Yielding  to  repeated 
solicitation,  he  consented  to  listen  to  his  volume  on  the 
"  Unconditional  Freeness  of  the  Gospel,"  as  read  to  him 
by  friends,  and  being  satisfied  that  it  Avas  in  substantial 
harmony  with  what  he  was  then  preparing  for  the  press, 
consented  to  its  republication.  It  appeared  in  1870,  soon 
after  his  death,  and  a  new  edition  was  issued  in  1873. 


WRITINGS   OF  MR.    ERSKINE,    WITH  DATES   OF 
PUBLICATION. 

1 .  Remarks  on  the  Internal  Evidence  for  the  Truth  of  Revealed 
Religion. 

Edinburgh,  Waugh  and  limes,  1S20. 
Fourth  Edition,  1821. 
Ninth  Edition,  1S29. 
Translated  into  French  by  the  Duchess  de  Broglie,  and  pub- 

1  It  appears  as  the  third  chapter  of  The  Spiritual  Order. 


WRITINGS  OF  MR.  ERSKINE. 


lished  in  Paris,  1S22,  under  the  title  "  Reflexions  sur  l'Evidence 
Iutrinsdque  de  la  Verite  du  Christianisme." 

Translated  into  German,  and  published  at  Leipzig,  1825, 
under  the  title  "  Bemerkungen  iiber  die  Inneren  Griinde  der 
Wahrbeit  der  Geoffenbarten  Religion." 

2.  An  Essay  on  Faith. 

Edinburgh,  Waugh  and  Innes,  1822. 

Fifth  Edition,  1S29. 

Translated  into  French,  1826,  and  published  at  Paris  under 
the  title  "  Essai  sur  La  Foi." 

3.  The  Unconditional  Freeness  of  the  Gospel. 

Edinburgh,  "Waugh  and  Innes,  1828. 
Fourth  Edition,  1831. 
Fifth  Edition,  1870. 
New  Edition,  1873. 

Translated  into  French  under  the  title  "  La  Pleine  Gratuity 
du  Pardon,"  and  published  at  Lausanne,  1S74. 

4.  The  Brazen  Serpent,  or  Life  coming  through  Death. 

Edinburgh,  1831. 
London,  Whittaker,  1S46. 

5.  The  Doctrine  of  Election,  and  its  connection  with  the  General 

Theory  of  Christianity,  illustrated  from  many  parts  of 
Scripture,  and  especially  from  the  Epistle  to  the  Romams. 
London,  James  Duncan,  1837. 

6.  The  Gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Greenock,  P.  B.  Lusk,  1830. 

7.  Introductory  Essay  to  Extracts  of  Letters  to  a  Christian 

Friend. 

Greenock,  R.  B.  Lusk,  1830. 

8.  Introductory  Essay  to  the   Works  of  the  Rev.  John  Gam- 

hold,  A.M. 

Collins'  Select  Christian  Authors  ;  GlasgoM',  1822. 
2  0 


578  WRITINGS  OF  MR.  ERSKIME. 

9.  Introductory  Essay  to  the  Saints'  Everlasting  Rest. 

Collins'  Select  Christian  Authors;   Glasgow,  1824. 

10.  Introductory  Essay  to  the  Letters  of  Samuel  Rutherford. 

Collins'  Select  Christian  Authors  ;  Glasgow,  1825. 

11.  The  Spiritual  Order,  and  other  Papers. 

Published  after  his  death,  in  1871. 


INDEX. 


INDEX. 


Adam,  Dr.,  Rector  of  Edinburgh 

High  School,  10. 
Adam's    Private     Thoughts,     72, 

79. 
Adrian's  tomb,  95. 
Advocates,  becomes  a  member  of 
the  Faculty  of,   11;    bids  fare- 
well to  the  Bar,  15. 
Affliction,    use    of,    52,    179  seq., 
215,  270,  336,  370,  372,  376, 
412,  416,  423,  440-452,  497. 
Airth  Castle,  7,  511-12. 
Albano,  94,  96. 
Anderson,  Christopher,  30. 
Argyll,  Bishop  of ;  see  Ewing,  Dr. 
Art,    works    of,    enjoyment     in, 
33,  41,    42,   48-50,   73,  75-78, 
279. 
Assurance,   personal,  doctrine  of, 

118. 
Atheism,  361. 

Atonement,  the,  25,  107,  110,  179, 
184-195,  200,  215,  250,  270, 
281-82,  304-5,  309,  310,  329- 
332,  334,  407  seq.,  417-8.  See 
Campbell,  Maurice,  J  esus  Christ, 
Pardon,  Punishment  of  Sin, 
Salvation. 
Aubigne,  Merle  d\  See  Merle. 
Authority,  submission  to,  343, 
338  seq.,  397,  409. 


Baillod,  M.,   a  Swiss  artist,  45- 

47,  79. 
Batten,  Mrs.,  485;  letter  to,  417. 

Emily,  485.     See  Gurney. 

Baveno,  48,  67-70. 
Beecher,  Dr.  Lyman,  27. 
Believing  in  Jesus  Christ, — its  real 
meaning,   429.      See   God,  Sal- 
vation. 
Bible,  the,  and  man's  conscience, 
217,    218,    518,    522;     critical 
spirit    towards    it,    355,    365  ; 
difficulties  in,  364 ;  letters  on, 
397-407.     See  Civilisation. 
Blackwell,  Mrs.,  letter  to,  332. 
Bbhme,  Jacob,  91,  528  ;  a  disciple 

of,  at  Lausanne,  233. 
Bologna,  76. 
Bosanquet,  Mrs.,  313. 
Bost,  M.  Ami,  233. 
Boyle,  Rev.  G.  D.,  letter  to,  415. 
Braid,  Mrs.,  328,  480,  489. 
Brazen  Serpent,   The,  publication 
of,  138;  extracts  from,  255, 547- 
Breule,  M.  de,  235. 
Bright,  John,  speeches  of,  493. 
Brigue,  i.  63-66. 
Broglie,  M.  de,  224,  226. 

Madame  de,  7,  63,  75,  203, 

261  ;  her  death,   196,  221  seq.; 
letters  to,  205-8,  210,  213-19. 


582 


LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


Broughty-Ferry,  chapel  at,  94, 
244. 

Brown,  Rev.  Baldwin,  311. 

Brown,  Ebenezer,  of  Inverkeith- 
ing,  242. 

Brown,  John,  M.D.,  241,  501  seq., 
535  ;  letter  to,  451. 

Bruce,  Lady  Christian,  wife  of 
James  Erskine  of  Cardross,  5  ; 
see  Erskine,  James.  She  was 
aunt  of — 

Thomas,    seventh    Earl    of 

Elgin;     see    Elgin.      The    two 
following  were  daughters — 

Lady  Matilda,  91,  146,  154. 

See  Maxwell. 

Lady    Augusta,     203.      See 

Stanley. 

Bruce,  James,  of  Kinnaird,  6. 

Bunsen,  Chevalier,  91,  96,  97, 
459  ;  letter  to,  307. 

Burnett,  Mrs.,  of  Kemnay  (grand- 
daughter of  Dr.  John  Erskine), 
letters  to,  14,  15,  177,  179,  250, 
258,  266,  281,  297,  300,  302, 
335,  382. 

Burns,  Dr.,  of  Paisley,  104. 
Butler's  Analogy,  25,  364. 


Cadder  House,  17,  39,  98,  245. 

"  Calvinian  "  atmosphere,  the, 
487. 

Calvinism  and  Arminianism,  33, 
248,  249,  311,  531. 

Campbell,  Dr.,  of  Kilninver, 
264. 

Rev.    J.    M'Leod,    of   Row, 

case  of,  in  the  Church  courts, 
102  seq.,  127-8  {see  487,  492, 
523,    524) ;  the  spiritual  gifts, 


129  seq. ;  in  Paris,  209  seq.  ; 
letter  to  his  son,  371  ;  letter  to 
his  daughter,  Mrs.  Macnabb, 
481  ;  letters  to,  174,  180,  225, 

251,  264,  283,  311,  321,  325-6, 
341,  343,  372,  373,  467,  491-2; 
tender  farewells  of  Mr.  Erskine 
to,  505  ;  letter  to  his  sons  on 
Mr.  Erskine's  death,  507  ;  dis- 
tinction drawn  by  Principal 
Shairp  between  Campbell  and 
Erskine,  525-6. 

Campbell,  Rev.  Donald,  371. 

Thomas  Erskine,  251. 

Campbell,  Isabella  and  Mary,  of 

Fernicarry,  and  their  spiritual 

gifts,  129  seq. 
Capri,  island  of,  93. 
Cardross,  estate  of,  4,  9,  10. 
Carlyle,  Dr.,  of  Inveresk,  339. 
Carlyle,   Thomas,  198,  202,  235, 

267,  268,  378,  535  ;  letters  to, 

252,  256,  268,  287,  292-4,  306, 
319,  328,  473,  490;  letters 
from,  379,  472,  480,  488. 

Cayley,  Edward  S.,  339. 

Chabaud,  Mademoiselle,  208. 

Chalmers,  Dr.,  letters  to,  17-21, 
32,  86,  98,  122,  139  ;  visit  to 
Paris,  196,  210  seq.,  217;  letter 
to  Rev.  A.  J.  Scott,  564. 

Charteris,  Lady  Caroline,  letters 
to,  327,  333,  335. 

Christ,  person  and  work  of ; 
the  two  capacities  in  which  He 
stands  to  men,  518  seq.  See 
Atonement,  Jesus  Christ. 

"  Christ  in  you  the  hope  of  glory  " 
predicable  of  every  man,  384, 
515  seq.     See  Conscience. 

Christianity,  in  what  it  consists, 


INDEX. 


583 


206,   262,  334,   358,    460;    re- 
cords of,  361.     See  Judaism. 
Church,  idea  of  the,  140,  155,  101- 

164. 
Church  of  England,  1S3;  service 

of,  196. 
Church    of    Scotland,    Disruption 

of,  268,  273. 
Civilisation,     modern,     and     the 

Bible,  363. 
Closing  scenes  of    Mr.    Erskine's 

life,  499  aeq. 
Cobden,    Richard,    letter   on    the 

death  of  his  son,  443-46. 
Cockburn,  Henry  Lord,  1 1 ;  letter 

from,  38. 
Colenso,   Bishop,   310,   341,  342, 

343  ;  letter  to,  397. 
Coleridge,  S.  T.,  250,  257. 
College  life,  10,  11. 
Combe,  George,  287. 
Como,  Lake  of,  40,  71. 
Conscience,  144,  203,  206,  216-8, 

228,  234,  330,   362  aeq.,   420, 

515,  559. 
Constable,  Thomas,  letter  to,  452. 
Continent,  visits  to  the  (1822-24), 

29;  (1826-27),  61  aeq.;  (1837- 

1839),  196  seq.;  (1844-46),  275 

aeq.  ;  (1849-50),  294. 
Conversations,  notes  of,  353-366, 

515-23,  531,  539-40. 
Conversions,  sudden,  417  aeq.   if  2- 
Corn  Law  agitation,  257. 
Craig,  Mr.,  letter  to,  422. 
Cramer,  M.  and  Mine.,  of  Geneva, 
39,    50.    204,    314;     death    of 
Madame,  251. 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  253,  256,  269, 

294. 
Culross,  burning  of  kelp  at,  2. 


Dante,  95,  96. 

Death  of  Mr.  Erskine,  5<  >7. 

Death,  sudden,  236. 

Death  as  the  penalty  of  sin,  123, 

547  seq.     See  Pardon,  Penalty. 
Degree  of  LL.D.,  378. 
Deity,  the  circle  of,  and  its  two 

hemispheres,  303-4,  435-9. 
Diodati,  63,  231,  236. 
Disease  of  the   soul  met   by  the 

gospel,   16,  20,  270,  332,  376, 

543  seq.     See  Forgiveness. 
Dispensation,    of    Christ    and    of 

angels,  143. 
Doctrinal  letters,  184-95,  382-439. 
Doddridge,  Dr.,  SO. 
Dogmas  of  Christianity,  345,  347. 

410. 
Dow,  Rev.  William,  deposed,  524. 
Drummond,  Henry,  153,  306. 
Dunblane,  cathedral  of,  8. 
Duncan,    Mr.,    of    Parkhill,   533; 

letter  from,  167- 
Dimdas,    James,     of     Ochtertyre 

(uncle),  45,  51. 
Mrs.     (Elizabeth    Graham), 

(aunt),  51.      Children  of — 
George    (Lord    Manor),    51, 

500,  533. 

Ralph,  death  of,  45. 

Thomas,  221. 

William,  262-3. 

(\  Ann,  475  ;  letter  to,  262. 

Eliza    (Mrs.   James    Stirling 

of  Gleutyan),  51,  126. 
Dunn,  Rev.   Mr.,  197,  199,  562. 
Durham,  school  at,  10. 


Early  years,  glimpses  of,  6  seq. ; 
513-4. 


584 


LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


Edinburgh  Review,  11  ;  on  the 
spiritual  gifts,  133. 

Education  ;  see  Life,  Trial. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  4,  322. 

Election,  work  on,  177,  228-9, 
234  ;  extracts  from,  553 ;  con- 
cluding portion  republished  by 
Bishop  Ewing,  5G9. 

Elgin,  Lord  (nephew  of  Lady 
Christian  Erskine),  203.  See 
Bruce. 

Lady,  203  ;  letters  to,  142- 

150,  152-15S. 

Elgin  Marbles,  19S. 

Elphinston,  General,  13. 

Epistles,  New  Testament,  476. 

Erskine,  Henry,  third  Lord  Car- 
dross,  notice  of,  1. 

Hon.  Col.  John,  '  the  Black 

Colonel,'  of  Carnock  (1661- 
1743),  son  of  David  second 
Lord  Cardross  (great-grand- 
father), 1-3,  510. 
—  John  (1695-1758),  son  of 
the  preceding,  Professor  of  Scots 
Law  in  Edinburgh  University, 
and  author  of  the  Institutes 
(grandfather),  3,  4,  460,  510. 

Dr.  John  (1721-1803)  (uncle), 

eldest  son  of  the  Professor,  and 
minister  of  Greyfriars  Church, 
Edinburgh,  3-5,  510;  his  family, 
57  ;  portrait  of  his  wife,  the 
Hon.  Christian  Mackay,  510-11. 

Christian,    daughter   of  Dr. 

John  Erskine,  letters  to,  57, 
59,  S4. 

James,   of  Cardross   (uncle), 

half-brother  of  Dr.  John,  5  ; 
his  daughters,  9  ;  portraits  of, 
and*  Lady  Christian,    his  wife, 


168,   511.     The  five  following 
were  daughters — 
Erskine,  Ann,  6,  63,  64. 

Janet  (Mrs.  Hay  of  Dunse 

Castle),  9. 

Matilda    (Mrs.    Graham   of 

Gartur),  9. 

Marion  (Manie),  9,  66,  300. 

Rachel,  8,  9 ;  last  illness  and 

death,  298-300  ;  letters  to,  62, 
78-84,  88-94,  97,  107,  111-116, 
119,  124,  127,  150,  158,  165, 
168,  172,  173,  175,  211-213, 
219,  238. 

Erskine,  David,  W.S.  (father),  son 
of  the  Professor,  5 ;  abstract 
from  his  family  record,  6  ;  his 
death  at  Naples,  6,  92. 

Mrs.  David  (mother),   6,  7, 

171  ;  letters  on  her  death,  173- 
176. 

Ann  (sister),  illness  of,  8,  9. 

Christian  (sister),  6,  17-    See 

Stirling,  Mrs.  Charles. 

David    (sister),   6,    29.     See 

Paterson,  Mrs.  James. 

James  (brother),  12-14,  38, 

224,  541. 

Mrs.     James     (cousin),    (see 

Stirling,    Katherine),    59,     85, 

175,  470,  530  ;  letter  to,  482  ; 

letters  on  her  death,  483-4. 
Erskine,    W.,    son-in-law    of    Sir 

James  Mackintosh,  48,  298. 
Essay  on  Faith,  34,  35,  37,  40. 
Eternity,  57  ;    has  nothing  to  do 

with  duration,  421,  425. 
Evangelistic    labours,    119,    244. 

532-3. 
Ewing,  Dr.  Alexander,  Bishop  of 

Argyll,    298,   405  ;    letters    to, 


INDEX. 


585 


368,  369,   380,    405,    407-415, 
430,  485-8. 
Ewing,  Greville,  35. 


Faith,  121,  161  seq.,  414,  419, 
433,  476-9,  531-33,  543  seq. 

"Faith  of  Christ," — meaning  of 
the  phrase,  476-79. 

Farrer,  Miss,  172. 

Father  and  Son,  doctrine  of,  in 
the  Godhead,  303-4,  435-39. 

Fatherhood  of  God ;  see  Atone- 
ment, God,  Life. 

Final  salvation  of  all,  422-35.  See 
'^"'^''Restoration.  /^ 

Florence,  sculpture  and  paintings 
at,  42,  48,  279. 

Forel,  Madame,  letters  to,  228, 
246,  254,  277,  284-6,  421. 

Forgiveness  nothing  without  heal- 
ing, 193;  376,  404,  536.  See 
Disease,  Gospel,  Pardon. 

Foster's  Essays,  278. 

Fox,  George,  249. 

Freeness  of  the  Gospel  published, 
100-102  ;  extracts,  543  ;  re- 
publication of,  576. 

Friendship,  cultivation  of,  54,  62, 
111,  529. 

Froude,  J.  A.,  480. 

Fry,  Mrs,,  261. 

F-ullerton,  Lord,  11,  299. 

Future  punishment,  eternity  of, 
232,  302,  303. 


Gaelic  School  Society,  30. 
Gaeta,  91,  92. 

Gairloch  heresy  case,  102  seq.,  4S7, 
492,  523-4. 


Galloway,  George,  letter  to,  288. 
Gambold,  John,  his  favourite  poet, 

251,  508. 
Gaussen,  Dr.,   64,  116,  186,  2.31  ; 
letters  to,   177,   186,   204,  271, 
313,  317  (see  323);  letters  from, 
169,  314. 
Gell,  Sir  William,  88. 
Geneva,  38,  48-50,  221  seq.,  277. 

313,  318. 
Gifts,  The  Spiritual, — narrative  of 
the  manifestations  in  the  west 
of  Scotland,   129  seq.  ;    and  in 
London,   141  ;  letters  on,  135, 
139,  142-167,  341. 
Gifts  of  the  Spirit,  tract  on,  pub- 
lished, 138. 
Gloag,  Dr.  Paton  J.,  letter  to,  391. 
God, — his    love    universal,     109, 
113,   117,   US,    120,    127,   265 
(see  Love)  ;   difference  between 
viewing  Him  in  the  character 
of   a  Judge    and    in  that  of  a 
Father,    374-6,    393  seq.,    403, 
418. 

His  fatherly  purpose  to  make 

all  men  partakers  of  His  holi- 
ness, 192,  266,  314,  334,  336, 
376,  392,  405,  410,  490,  554. 

personality  of,  291. 

righteousness  of,  351,  374-6. 

416,  426  seq.,  434,  478. 
Godhead,  relations  in  the,  303-4. 

330,  435. 
Gospel,  the,  as  a  remedy,  16,  20, 
122,  123,  216,  305,  329-31,  347, 
404  ;  connection  between  it  and 
the  conscience,  22S,  515  seq. 
See  Conscience. 
Gourlay,  Miss,  501  seq.,  576 ; 
letter  to,  407. 


586 


LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


Graham,  Mrs.,  of  Airth  {grand- 
mother), 7,  8,  511. 

Thomas  (uncle),  death  of  his 

daughter  Mary,  85. 

Miss,  of  Airth  (aunt),  death 

of,  285. 

Ann  (Mrs.    David    Erskine, 

q.v. ),  (mother),  6,  7,  45. 

Elizabeth  (aunt)  ;  see  Dun- 
das,  Mrs. 

Mary  (Mrs.  Stirling  of  Kip- 

pendavie  and  Kippenross), 
(aunt),  7. 

Graham,  Mrs.,  of  Gartur  (cousin)  ; 
see  Erskine,  Matilda. 

Grandpierre,  M.,  208. 

Greek  sculptors,  41. 

Gresson,  Mr.,  death  of,  82,  S3. 

Guizot,  M.,  204;  his  mother, 
208. 

(iurney,  Mrs.  Russell,  letters  to, 
435-9,  464.     See  Batten. 

Guyon,  Madame,  247,  249. 


Habakkuk,  Prophecy  of,  415. 

Haldane,  James  A.,  30. 

Robert,  30,  94  ;  his  teach- 
ing, 314. 

Hare,  Mr.,  English  clergyman  at 
Geneva,  236. 

Hay,  Sir  John,  230. 

William,   of    Dunse    Castle, 

9 ;  his  wife,  Janet  Erskine, 
q.v.  ;  death  of  his  son  Charles, 
85. 

Robert,  85. 

Miss,  of  Kingston  Grange,  9. 

Healing,  gifts  of,  145,  147. 

Hernnhut,  32. 

Heubner,  M.,  of  Wittenberg,  34. 


Houston,   Ludovic,    of   Johnstone 

Castle,  203  ;  death  of,  342. 
Hurd,  Bishop,  4. 

Imputation,  544,  547  seq. 

Infancy,  death  in,  356. 

Inglis,  Sir  Robert,  199,  312. 

Lady,  198,  199. 

Inspiration,  399  seq. 

Internal  Evidence,  publication  of, 
22;  extracts,  22-26;  testimo- 
nies to  its  effect,  26-2S  ;  trans- 
lated into  French,  22. 

Ireland  and  the  Irish,  287. 

Irving,  Edward,  his  book  on  the 
Prophecies,  86,  87,  91,  97  ;  his 
connection  with  Alexander  J. 
Scott,  103,  151  ;  the  spiritual 
gifts,  141,  142;  letter  to,  160; 
his  death,  165.  See  London, 
Oliphant. 

Ischia,  island  of,  93,  95. 

Jacob's  ladder,  84,  85. 

Jebb,  Bishop,  197. 

Jeffrey,  Lord,  11  ;  at  Geneva,  3S. 

Jesus  Christ, — his  relation  to  the 
race,  115,  229,  249,  250,  263, 
317-8;  329-31,  356,  385,  392 
seq.,  413,  428,  478,  515. 

Jowett,  Professor,  283,  380,  491. 

Judaism  and  Christianity,  360. 

Jiidas  as  purse-bearer,  354. 

Justification,  478,  543.    See  Faith. 

forensic  theory  of,  391  seq. 

Keble,     John,  —  his     Christian 

Year,  111,  501  ;  Life  of,  491. 
Ker,  Alan,  373. 
Kingsley   Charles,  307,  311. 


INDEX. 


587 


Kiss,  the,  of  God,  486. 

Knox,  Alex.,  of  Dublin,  197,  199. 


Lausanne, 221,  227,  230,  236,275. 

Law,  William,  his  Spirit  of  Prayer, 
90,  and  Spirit  of  Love,  97  ; 
objections  to  his  views  con- 
sidered, 384. 

Leighton,  Archbishop,  32,  64. 

Leipzig,  picture-gallery  at,  31. 

Leresche,  M.,  letter  from  M. 
Vinet  to,  on  the  Internal  Evi- 
dence, 27. 

Life,  the  new,  112-16. 

Life,  the  present, — the  process 
of  spiritual  education  continued 
beyond,  237  ;  not  a  state  of 
probation,  but  a  process  of  edu- 
cation, 246,  288,  344,  350  seq., 
375-6,  409  seq.,  427.    See  God. 

Linlathen,  estate  of,  purchased 
by  Mr.  Erskine's  father,  5,  6 ; 
his  own  succession  to  it,  15  ;  the 
household  at,  29,  51,  171,  274, 
475 ;  autumn  receptions  at, 
283. 

Literary  tastes,  296,  327,  529. 

London,  the  "  church "  in,  141 
seq.,  152  seq.,  155. 

Lord's  Prayer,  the,  Mr.  Carlyle 
on,  488-9. 

Lorimer,  Professor,  letters  to,  400- 
405  ;  letter  of,  to  Dr.  Hanna, 
494  ;  letter  of  M.  Paradol  to, 
496.  / 

Love  of  God,  109,  112,  118,  115 
seq.,  234,  250,  270,  273,  2S1-2, 
284  30rf,  320,  332,  334,  357, 
374;  436,  488.  See  God.  Salva- 
tion. 


Low,  Dr.  Richard,  327. 
Lusbington,  Professor,  498,  502. 
Luther,  34,  446. 
Lyons,  Captain,  413. 


M'Crie,  Dr.,  30. 

Macdonalds,    the,    of    Port-Glas- 
gow,   and   the    spiritual    gifts, 

129  seq.,  154  ;  death  of,  165. 
Machar,  Dr.,  126. 
Mrs.,   letters  to,    126,   273, 

377,  497. 
Mackay,   Hon.   Christian,  wife  of 

Dr.  John  Erskine,  510-11. 
Mackenzie,  James,  268,  272,  290, 

293,  533  ;  letters  to,  245,  260, 

268  ;  death  of,  500. 

Miss  F.,  89. 

Macknight,  Dr.,  anecdote  of,  106. 
M'Leod,     Dr.   Norman,   106,  374, 

487. 
M'Murtrie,  Rev.  J.,  335,  538. 
Macnabb,    Mrs.,    letters  to,    265, 

285,  447. 
Maggiore,  Lago,  40,  67,  71. 
Malan,  Caesar,  37,  56,  109. 
Mallet,   Cramer,    letters  to,    242. 

257,  271,295,  466,  471. 
Manor,  Lord ;  see  Dundas,  George. 
Manuel,  M.,  220,  221,  227,  230. 
Martineau,  James,  329-31. 
Mather,  Dr.  Cotton,  4. 
Mathews,  Rev.  Tbos.  Wright,  31  ; 

letters  to,  311,   312,  321,342. 

378. 
Maurice,    F.   D.,    100,    118,    198, 

199,  302,   381,  408  ;  his  King-   a,*-! 

dom  of  Christ,  180  ;  letters  to, 

308-9,  312,  333-5,  337-8,  341,  S^' 

476;  letters  from,  101,  477-9. 


£*- 


588 


LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


Maurice,  Mrs.,  letter  to,  258. 

Captain  Frederick,  341. 

Miss  Priscilla,  letter  to,  442. 

Maxwell,    Sir    John,     of    Pollok, 

332-3  ;  Ins  death,  353,  368  seq. 
Lady  Matilda,   332,  368-9. 

See  Bruce. 

Sir  W.  Stirling,  333,  536. 

Mazzini,  Giuseppe,  293. 
Mediatorship  of  Christ,  193-196. 
Melville,  Hon.  James,  of  Balgar- 

vie,    maternal    grandfather    of 

Dr.  John  Erskine,  4. 
Merle  d'Aubigne,  Dr.,  30,  34,  62, 

178,  204,  231,  243,  314,318; 

letter  to,  54. 
Michael    Angelo,     visit     from    a 

descendant  of,  42. 
Milan,  39. 

Mildmay,  Sir  N.  and  Lady,  64. 
Miller,  Rev.  Samuel,  of  Monifieth, 

274. 
Milton,  John,  43S. 
Miracles,  144  seq.,  358, 402,  406-7. 
Misgivings  as  to  the  credibility  of 

the  Gospel  history,  11. 
Mola  di  Gaeta,  91,  92. 
Momiers,  the,  of  Geneva,  44. 
Moncreiff,   Sir   Harry, — his    bio- 
graphy  of    Dr.   John    Erskine, 

4,  5,  14. 
Money,    R.ev.    Charles,   letter  to, 

448. 
Moneys,  family  of  the,  35,  37,  55  ; 

letter  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  109. 
Monifieth  Churchyard,  541. 
Monod,  Adolphe,   178,  202,  204, 

295  ;  letter  left  by,   addressed 

to  Messrs.  Scholl,  Gaussen,  and 

Erskine,  323  ;  letter  from,  170  ; 

letter  to,  320. 


Monod,  Frederick,  202. 

Montagu,  Mrs.,  letter  to,  56. 

Moravianism,  32,  33. 

Moray,  Mrs.,  of  Abercairney,  anec- 
dote of,  512. 

Moses,  divine  communication  to 
477  ;  death  of,  486. 

Muir,  Dr.  John,  400,  402. 


Naples,  92. 

Napoleon  I.,  31. 

Netherlands,  the,  29. 

Necker  -  de  -  Saussure,     Madame. 

223,  255,  258. 
Newman,  Dr.  J.  H.,  536. 
Noel,  Hon.  and  Rev.  Gerard,  35, 

37,  38,  41,  46,  541. 
Miss  C, — lines  by,   on  Mr. 

Erskine's  death,  541. 


Objective  and  subjective  reli- 
gion, distinction  of,  important, 
33.     See  Revelation. 

Oliphant,  Mrs.,  59,  338. 

Ordinances  in  the  church,  155. 
See  Church,  London. 

Oswald,  Lady,  death  of,  80. 

Pantheism,  422. 

Paradol,  Prevost, — his  interview 
with  Mr.  Erskine,  494  ;  letter 
to  Professor  Lorimer  on  hearing 
of  Mr.  Erskine's  death,  496. 

Pardon  and  salvation,  distinction 
between,  56,  543  seq.  See  For- 
giveness, Salvation. 

changes  the  character  of  the 

penalty,  123  ;  universality  of, 
objections  answered,  123,  124. 


INDEX. 


589 


Paris,  61,  62,  200,  20S. 

Parliament  House, — brilliancy  of 
the  period  of  his  attendance  at, 
11. 

Paterson,  Captain  James  (brother- 
in-law),  29  ;  letters  to,  45,  135, 
236  ;  his  death,  325. 

Mrs.  (sister),  letters  to,    39, 

61,  94,  196,  198,  201,  208, 
227,  237,  310,  530,  536  ;  her 
last  illness  and  death,  46S-9  ; 
death  of  three  of  her  children, 
171  seq. 

Paterson,  J.  Erskine  (nephew — 
now  J.  Erskine  Erskine  of  Lin- 
lathen),  265,  475,  501,  537; 
Jetter  of,  to  Miss  Wedgwood, 
505. 

Mrs.,  464,  499,  501,  537. 

Paton,  Sir  J.  Noel,  336. 

Patriarch,  the,  of  Venice,  74. 

Peebles,  Dr.  81. 

Pelet,  Madame,  208. 

Penalty  of  sin,  123  ;  redemption 
from  it  universal,  124,  184  seq. 

Penington, Isaac,  158. 

Perrot,  Mr.,  46,  271. 

Perth,  visit  to,  475. 

Peterborough,  Bishop  of,  493. 

Plymouthism,  letter  on,  3S2. 

Pollok,  visits  to,  368. 

Pomaret,  Madlle.,  223. 

Port-Glasgow,  the  spiritual  gifts 
at,  129  seq.     See  Gifts. 

Porter,  Prof.  Noah,  letter  from, 
26. 

Predestination,  33. 

Principles  and  statutes,  a  dispen- 
sation of,  distinguished,  143. 

Private  judgment,  247,  387. 

Probation,  state  of ;  see  Life. 


Promises,  Scripture,  266. 

Prophecy,  object  of,  150. 

Psalms,  the,  454,  504. 

Punishment,  accepting  of,  179, 
182,  216,  255,  286,  525.  See 
Future. 

Punishment,  eternal,  302,  359, 
411,  421-2.     See  Eternity. 

of  sin,  cannot  satisfy  Divine 

justice,  396  ;  its  revealed  pur- 
pose, 423.  See  Penalty,  Salva- 
tion. 

Puritans  and  Puritanism,  249, 
252. 

Purpose  of  God  in  His  dealings 
with  man  ;  see  Atonement,  God. 

Puseyism,  letter  on,  3S6. 


Quakerism,  249,  390. 


Ramsay,  E.  B.,  Dean  of  Edin- 
burgh, 335. 

Redemption.  See  Atonement. 
Love  of  God. 

Religion,  39,  205,  206,  208,  213. 
214,  359  ;  human  and  divine, 
contrasted,  117,  118  ;  the 
Christian,  one  of  centres,  not 
of  circumferences,  143. 

Reminiscences  of  Mr.  Erskine  by 
Dean  Stanley,  454-62. 

by  Principal  Shairp,  509-41. 

Renan,  Ernest,  346,  347,  357, 
457,  537. 

Responsibility,  man's,  33,  161, 
163. 

Restoration,  final,  of  all — hope  of, 
71,  82,  237,  286,  305,  422-435, 
526-27   347. 


590 


LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSK1NE. 


See 


Revelation,   effect  of,  to  ns. 
Bible. 

objective    and    subjective, 

484-5. 

Revolutions,  European,  of  1848, 
286-8S,  292. 

Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua,  42. 

Rich,  Claudius  James,  199,  348. 

Rich,  Mrs.,  348,  59,  172,  199, 
280,  485. 

Richter,  Jean  Paul,  279. 

Robertson,  Dr.  "William,  the  his- 
torian, colleague  of  Dr.  John 
Erskine  in  the  Greyfriars,  5. 

Robertson,  Dr.  John,  of  Glasgow, 
290-91,  538. 

Rogers,  Professor,  534. 

Romans,  Epistle  to  the, — studies 
on,  181,  237,  248,  424,  430, 
458,  482.     See  Spiritual  Order. 

Rome,  42  seq.,  50,  78,  86,  274, 
277. 

Row,  summers  at,  104  seq. 

Ruskin,  John,  302. 

Russell,  Dr.  David,  Letters  of,  37. 

Francis,  312,  440;  letter  to, 

447. 

Rutherford's  (Sam. )  Letters,  Intro- 
ductory Essay  to,  15,  16. 

Rutherfurd,  Lord,  533  ;  letters 
to,  263,  2S9-92,  296,  298,  301. 


Sacrifice  of  Christ.  See  Atone- 
ment, Love  of  God,  Jesus 
Christ. 

St.  Aulaire,  Madame  de,  207. 

Salvation,  a  deliverance  from  sin, 
not  merely  from  punishment, 
16,  184  seq.,  218,  395,  410,  417- 
419. 


Sandford,  Rev.  D.  F.,  502. 

Scheffer,  Ary,  7. 

Scboll,  Charles,  of  Lausanne,.  221  ; 

letter  to,  from  A.  Monod,  323. 
School  life,  10. 
Schwabe,  Mrs.,  303,  310  ;  letters 

to,  303,  329,  336,  443-6. 
Scott,  Dr.,  of  Greenock,  103. 
Alex.  J.,  his  friendship  with 

Mr.  Campbell  and  Mr.  Erskine, 

103  seq.,  197  ;  deprived  of  his 

licence,     106 ;    his    connection 

with  Irving    broken   off,    151  ; 

tour  in  Bernese  Alps,  220  seq.  ; 

his    "  Discourses,"    261  ;     his 

death,    372  ;    notice    of,    567 ; 

letters  to,    172,   180,  230,  2^2, 

339,  344. 
Mrs.,   letters  to,    235,   346, 

370,  372. 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  11  ;  his  sketch 

of  Dr.  John  Erskine,  5. 
Self-sacrifice,  407. 
Sermon  on  the   Mount,    doctrine 

of,  476. 
Shairp,     Principal — reminiscences 

of  Mr.  Erskine,  509-41. 
Shakespeare,  familiarity  with,  327, 

383,  460,  473,  534. 
Silence  of  God,  the,  conversation 

on,  539-40. 
Sin,    views    of,    526,    540.       Set 

Atonement,  Salvation. 
Simplon,  the,  39,  67,  68. 
Spirit,  living  in  the,  337. 
Spiritual  gifts.     See  Gifts. 
health,   restoration   to,   the 

true  idea  of  salvation,   16,  20, 

332,  543  seq.     See  Disease. 
Spiritual  Order,  and  other  Papers, 

preparation  of,   377,  407,  434. 


INDEX. 


591 


438,  482,  538;  publication  of, 

576. 
Spiritual  world,  evidence  of  a,  361, 

363. 
Stael,  Baron  de,  63,  75. 
Madame     de     (daughter    of 

Mme.  Vernet),    116,    222    seq., 

260,  261  ;  letters  to,  116,  255, 

269,  280,  322. 
Stanley,  Deau,  6,  291,  346;  letters 

to,  344,  493  ;  reminiscences  of 

Mr.  Erskine,  454-62. 

Lady   Augusta,    letters    to, 

340,  346,  368,  465,  470,  493. 
See  Bruce. 

Stirling,  William   (afterwards  Sir 

W.  Stirling-Maxwell  of  Pollok), 

333,  536. 
Stirling,  Charles, — marriage  of,  to 

Christian    Erskine,    17  ;   death 

of,  124  seq. 

Mrs.    Charles    (sister),    125, 

126,  177,  463,  529,  536  ;  letters 
on  her  death,  464-8  ;  letters  to, 
31,  38,  41-43,  48-50,  58,  76,  97, 
178,  182,  197,  198,  202,  220, 
223,  232,  239-42;  letter  from, 
to  Mrs.  Burnett,  294. 

Stirling,  John,  of  Kippendavie  and 
Kippenross  (uncle) ,  7 ;  his  wife, 
see  Graham,  Mary  ;  family  of,  7, 
8;  tablet  to  his  memory  in 
Dunblane  Cathedral,  12. 

The  following  are  sons    and 
daughters — 

Captain  James,  of  Glentyan, 

8,  105  ;  his  wife,  a  daughter 
of  James  Dundas  of  Ochtertyre 
(both,  cousins),  51  ;  letter  to, 
125. 

Captain  Patrick,  12. 


Stirling,  Mrs.  Patrick,  237,  238. 

Jane,  7,  59,  175,  514  ;  letter 

to,  221  ;  death  of,  336. 

Katherine      (Mrs.      James 

Erskine),  7,   13,  59,   175.     See 
Erskine,  Mrs.  James. 

Margaret  (LadyTorphichen), 

59.     See  Torphichen. 

Story,  Rev.  Robert,  of  Roseneath. 
132,  133. 

Dr.  Robert  H.,  4S7. 

Strauss,  D.  F.,  235. 

Stuart,  Dr.  Charles,  of  Dunearn 
(son-in-law of  Dr.  John  Erskine), 
14,  30,  54,  57,  85,  180;  letters 
to,  30,  34-3S,  43,  46  ;  allusions 
to  his  death,  57,  60,  85,  233. 

Miss  (daughter  of  the  pre- 
ceding), 58,  60,  86  ;  letters  to, 
54,  165. 

Stuart,  Dr.  Moses,  27. 
Substitution  of  Christ,  215,  548  seq. 

See  Atonement,  Jesus  Christ. 
Switzerland,  religion  in,  44,  233, 

274. 
Sympathy,  letters  of,  52,  280,  420- 

452. 


Tait,  Rev.  William,  and  the  Catho- 
lic Apostolic  Church,  153;  letter 
to,  374. 

Taplin,  Mr.,  155. 

Tayler,  J.  J.,  303. 

Taylor,  Dr.  N.  W.,  27. 

Tholuck,  Professor,  31. 

Thomson,  Dr.  Andrew,  153,  155. 

Tocqueville,  Alexis  de,  491. 

Tombs  of  the  old  Romans,  95.   . 

Tongues,  speaking  with,  132.  See 
Gifts. 


592 


LETTERS  OF  THOMAS  ERSKINE. 


Torphichen,  Lord  (tenth  baron), 
59. 

Lady     (Margaret     Stirling), 

(cousin),  59. 

Trial  subservient  to  education, 
431-2.  See  God  ;  Life,  the 
present. 

Trotter,  Lady,  295. 

True  and  False  Religion,  being  In- 
troductory Essay  to  "  Letters  to 
a  Lady  "  re-issued,  574. 


Unitartanism,  306,  35S. 
Universal  Salvation,  422-35. 
Restoration. 


See 


Venice,  71  seq. 

Vernets,  the,  of  Geneva,  50,  75. 

Vernet,  Madame,  63,  75, 223,  237 
238,  255-6,  493  ;  letter  to,  52. 

Vesuvius,  92,  95. 

Vinet,  M.,  intercourse  with,  221, 
227,  230,  232,  245-6,  249,  255, 
266,  274-5,  459  ;  letter  on  the 
Internal  Evidence,  27  ;  opinion 
on  The  Brazen  Serpent,  275  ; 
letter  to,  277  ;  death  of,  2S4-5. 

Madame,  232;  letter  to,  233. 

Wagner,  Rev.  George,  letter  to, 
280. 


Warburton,  Bishop,  4. 

Way,    Mr.,    English    minister    in 

Paris,  61,  62. 
Wedgwood,  Mr.,  199,  236. 

Miss,  her  journal  of  a  visit 

to  Linlathen,  353-366;  letters 
to,  349-53,  366,  376,  380-81, 
475,  484,  490  ;  letters  from  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Paterson  to,  505-6. 
Wesleyanism,  248-9. 
Westminster,  Dean  of.  See 
Stanley. 

Confession,  and  the  Church, 

106. 
White,   Rev.   Joseph  Blanco,   his 

sonnet  on  Night,  360. 
Wilberforce,  William,  36. 
Wilder,  Mr.,  35,  36. 
Wilkes,     Mr.     (father     of     Lord 

Jeffrey's  wife),  38. 
Will,  the,  214,  234-35. 
William,  King  (Prince  of  Orange), 
and  Lieut. -Colonel  Erskine,  1,  2. 
Woodford,  Rev.  Mr.,  197. 
Wordsworth,  463. 
Wylie,  Dr.,  of  Carluke,  13;  jubilee 
of  his  ministry,  4S7  ;  letters  to, 
273,  339. 


Young,  Rev.  John,  letters  to,  431, 
433,  434. 


lEtiinburgfj  SSntberBito  $re28: 

T.    A«D    A.    CONSTABLE,    PRINTERS   TO   HER   MAJESTY. 


Writings  of  Mr.  Erskine published  during  Ids 
Lifetime  with  Dates  of  Publication. 

I.   Remarks   on   the    Internal    Evidence    for    the 
Truth  of  Revealed  Religion. 

Edinburgh,  Waugh  and  limes,  1820. 
Fourth  Edition,  1821. 
Ninth  Edition,  1829. 
Translated   into   French   by    the    Duchess    de    Broglie,    and 
published   in    Paris,    1822,    under  the   title   "Reflexions   sur 
l'Evidence  Intrinseque  de  la  Verite"  du  Christianisme." 

Translated   into   German,    and   published   at   Leipzig,    1S25, 
under  the  title    "  Beinerkungen   iiber  die  Inneren  Griinde  der 
Wahrheit  der  Geoffenbarten  Keligion. " 
II.  An  Essay  on  Faith. 

Edinburgh,  Waugh  and  Innes,  1822. 
Fifth  Edition,  1829. 
Translated  into  French,   1826,  and  published  at  Paris  under 
the  title  "  Essai  sur  la  Foi." 

III.  The  Unconditional  Freeness  of  the  Gospel. 

Edinburgh,  Waugh  and  Innes,  1828. 
Fourth  Edition,  1831. 
New  Edition,  1873. 
Translated  into  French  under  the  title  "La  Pleine  Gratuitt- 
du  Pardon,"  and  published  at  Lausanne,  1S74. 

IV.  The  Brazen  Serpent,  ob  Life  coming  through  Death. 

Edinburgh,  1831. 
London,  Whittaker,  1S4(>*. 
V.  The  Doctrine  of  Election,  and  its  connection  with 
the    General    Theory    of    Christianity,    illustrated 
from  many  parts  op  scripture,  and  especially  from 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans. 

London,  James  Duncan,  1837. 
VI.  The  Gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Greenock,  R.  B.  Lusk,  1830. 
VII.  Introductory  Essay  to   Extracts  of  Letters  to 
a  Christian  Friend. 

Greenock,  R.  B.  Lusk,  1830. 
VIII.  Introductory  Essay  to  the  Works  of  the  Rev. 
John  Gambold. 

Collins'  Select  Christian  Authors  ;  Glasgow,  1822. 
IX.  Introductory  Essay  to  the  Saints'  Everlasting- 
Rest. 

Collins'  Select  Christian  Authors  ;  Glasgow  1824. 
X.  Introductory  Essay  to  the  Letters  of  Samuel 
Rutherford. 

Collins'  Select  Christian  Authors  ;  Glasgow,  1S2.V 


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